Linux Kernel Drivers–AU Law on Interoperability

[ Thanks to Brendan Scott for this
link. ]

“For those of you who haven’t seen it, some of the Linux Kernel
developers have issued a statement on the use of closed source
drivers in conjunction with the kernel (summary–it’s a Bad
Thing^TM). My suggestion on this is that the interface
for drivers should prohibit non-GPL drivers unless the driver’s
author positively asserts that the driver is not a derivative
work.

“This announcement has triggered off some discussions in mailing
lists about how to determine whether or not something is a
derivative work of the kernel. Someone mentioned that derivative
works should be functionally based, citing Linus Torvalds here. I
intended to chime in saying that the Australian High Court had
actually said something like that some time ago, but then the short
email got out of hand. So now I’ve done a blog post…”

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