Atheros Driver Developments | Linux Today

Atheros Driver Developments

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Sep 13, 2007

“‘Reyk and I have decided to show something from the private
handling of this Atheros copyright violation issue,’ OpenBSD
creator Theo de Raadt began in a posting to the OpenBSD -misc
mailing list referring to the recent relicensing of OpenBSD’s BSD
licensed Atheros driver under the GPL. He noted, ‘it has been like
pulling teeth since (most) Linux wireless guys and the SFLC do not
wish to admit fault. I think that the Linux wireless guys should
really think hard about this problem, how they look, and the legal
risks they place upon the future of their source code bodies.’ He
stressed that the theory that BSD code can simply be relicensed to
the GPL without making significant changes to the code is false,
adding, ‘in their zeal to get the code under their own license,
some of these Linux wireless developers have broken copyright law
repeatedly. But to even get to the point where they broke copyright
law, they had to bypass a whole series of ethical considerations
too…'”

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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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