[HH] proprietary CPUs

[Federico Lucifredi]

Okay, so IANL disclaimer in effect, but I have worked for several Linux vendors as you guys know… and I did play ball with the licensing gurus :)

On May 29, 2012, at 4:51 PM, Tom Metro wrote:

> Bill Bogstad wrote:
>> Tom Metro wrote:
>>> So I wonder why this situation doesn't result in a GPL violation.
> […]
> That's what I was led to believe - that simply dynamically loading a
> library didn't get around the linking restriction unless the code was
> licensed under LGPL.

This is considered "a matter of interpretation" that changes depending whom you ask.  The purists believe that GPL are not licensed to link proprietary modules (unless an express clause is added), but several vendors out there consider loading proprietary modules okay with the GPL - with their legal department's blessing.

The issue is that the GPL does not say "linking", and so the question winds up being "is a kernel module a derivative work of the GPLv2 Kernel, or not?"

I believe the FSF considers loadable modules to a GPL program to require a licensing exception.  The Linux kernel maintainers do consider loadable kernel modules derivative works, but "tolerate' proprietary modules as a way to get drivers from the NVidias of the world, that consider the driver technology itself part of their secret sauce (or too revealing of it to put into the public's view).

> 
>> ...but the main Linux developers apparently don't agree and are
>> unwilling to support legal efforts to enforce this.
> 
> That's unfortunate. I wonder why? Are they afraid such action would have
> a chilling effect on vendor support for Linux?

Drivers. Not all vendors are okay with putting their drivers in full view, and the Linux Kernel maintainers still want to support that hardware.

Also, Note that the LGPL is about letting a propriatary program link to your F/OSS library - not exactly the same as loading a propritary module into your GPL executable, which is a narrower question of derivative works. 

I am still not a lawyer, but this is what the industry seems to go by right now.

Best -F

_________________________________________
-- "'Problem' is a bleak word for challenge" - Richard Fish
(Federico L. Lucifredi) - flucifredi at acm.org - GnuPG 0x4A73884C