Code of (still) uncertain origin [LWN.net]

Code of (still) uncertain origin

Posted Aug 20, 2006 14:59 UTC (Sun) by erich (subscriber, #7127)
Parent article: Code of (still) uncertain origin

Well, it all depends on the reasons...
Let's say this "Shem" is a Microsoft (*) employee. Not involved with any Thinkpad driver there (which are likely done by IBM, not Microsoft), so there is little doubt that he used the documents he posted in his mails.

While not having violated any NDA, he might still get into trouble by his employer for contributing to the Linux kernel.

In that situation, I guess it would be okay if someone else "adopted" the patch. What if the author of the original driver reads through it and adopts it, where are the problems then?

(*) Microsoft was chosen as being the "biggest enemy" of Linux, I have no indication whatsoever to believe that this is true. In fact all I've read about this issue was here on lwn.net

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