Whats so difficult about ISSU

Gary Buhrmaster gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
Sun Nov 11 15:12:05 UTC 2012


On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 1:45 AM, Saku Ytti <saku at ytti.fi> wrote:
> ... Or is GPL not really problematic
> issue, as you can hide your intellectual property in binary kernel modules?

GPLv2, which governs the Linux Kernel, does tolorate use of
binary kernel modules under some conditions (the classic
example is the nVidia driver blob which uses a GPL shim).
Regardless, most lawyers would advise a company to avoid
being a test case for some of the poorly defined terms used in
the license, including "derivative work".  A recent paper
discussing the issue can be found at:

"LOADED QUESTION: EXAMINING LOADABLE KERNEL
MODULES UNDER THE GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE V2"

http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1115/7WJLTA265.pdf?sequence=8




Gary




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