Open letter to nVidia: Please open source the legacy nVidia video drivers [LWN.net]

Open letter to nVidia: Please open source the legacy nVidia video drivers

Posted Jul 12, 2007 23:14 UTC (Thu) by sayler (subscriber, #3164)
In reply to: Open letter to nVidia: Please open source the legacy nVidia video drivers by pointwood
Parent article: Open letter to nVidia: Please open source the legacy nVidia video drivers

"They both create only proprietary, unethical and illegal drivers. See http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/ols_2006_keynote.html for more insight in that regard."
-> quoting
"That's it, it is very simple. I've had the misfortune of talking to a lot of different IP lawyers over the years about this topic, and every one that I've talked to all agree that there is no way that anyone can create a Linux kernel module, today, that can be closed source. It just violates the GPL due to fun things like derivative works and linking and other stuff. Again, it's very simple."

Greg K-H keeps saying this, and I don't think it's at all that clear cut. If he wants a counterexample, I know a very nice open-source friendly lawyer who disagrees.

I agree that closed-source drivers are counter-productive, ugly, and obnoxious, though.

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