Re: Please release a stable kernel Linux 3.0

From: Rene Herman
Date: Fri Jun 29 2007 - 17:31:31 EST


On 06/29/2007 11:05 PM, Bodo Eggert wrote:

Alan Cox <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Indeed if its public domain you may have almost no rights at all
depending what you were given. Once you get the source code you can do
stuff but I don't have to give you that. If its public domain I can find
security holes in it, and refuse to provide the fixed module in source
form even.

The GPL forces nobody to not release his module under PD, therefore it can't
protect you from that. Even minor changes - like adjusting the module to use
to the current API - won't change that, at least in Germany they'd have to
qualify as a work of their own in order to create a GPL-only derived work,
because anything not qualifying for that could also be integrated into the
PD version, and both would remain identical.

What I focussed on when asking were only my wishes as an author but Alan (if I understood him right ofcourse) pointed out that _the kernel_ does not want integrated code to be in the public domain regardless of my wishes.

Arguably (no doubt, sigh...) someone could distribute the kernel in binary form but refuse to provide source for the bits marked as being in the public domain alongside it -- yes, can of worms when compared to GPL demands, but I believe I can see why one shouldn't even go near there.

Rene.

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