Re: What is accepted into the standard kernel sources ?

Ben Woodard (bwoodard@cisco.com)
Fri, 06 Feb 1998 06:31:39 +0000

> > specifications. The driver - the part that interfaces between the
> > Linux kernel and the library - is released under GPL. The library
> > itself is not available in source form, but could be included with the
>
> On the contrary. You can't GPL the driver as it is linked with a private
> binary object file and violates the license of the GPL. After our discussion
> I checked this viewpoint with several folks. Take it up with the FSF lawyer
> if you dont like it.
>
> Alan

What about the specific exception clause to the GPL that Eric Raymond
has been talking about? Evidently, you can tack on a specific
exemption to the GPL which avoids the tainting problem. They used it
first to GPL java programs.

Now don't get me wrong, I personally think it is incredibly idiotic
for a hardware vendor to want to maintain private portions of their
code but I believe that there is a subtlely different interpretation
to the GPL that rms endorses that allows for this sort of thing.

-ben

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