Three kinds of packages

[Erik P. Olsen]

On 26/07/09 23:38, Chris Adams wrote:
> Once upon a time, Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com> said:
>> I would just like to remind people that there are not two (Fedora and 
>> non-free) kinds of package, but three, the totally free (Fedora), the close 
>> source but legal (fglrx and similar vendor drivers), and the only legal in 
>> the free world, restricted in fascist countries.
>>
>> I mention this because vendor drivers, while not open source, are free and 
>> legal to use and redistribute. So let's not talk about rpmfusion and *forge 
>> software as illegal, much of it is not, even  in the USA.
> 
> Aside from calling the US fascist (which is a little over the top,
> especially since the US isn't the only country that has allowed and/or
> enforced the stupid patents), you're wrong on another point.  A number
> of the closed source kernel modules are of questionable legality (and
> not just in the US), because they may be derived works of the Linux
> kernel.  A derived work of the kernel must be GPLv2, which can't be
> closed source.
> 

Why aren't they then being prosecuted? Too costly?

-- 
Erik.