The Linux Licensing Labyrinth

“Both corporate lawyers and hardware developers are gradually
getting up to speed on GPL license issues. The lawyers especially
are undergoing a real sea change of understanding, Wacha said.

“”Senior business people is where the real problem is. They
haven’t done the research on what the real situation is with the
GPL. They think they have to give up all proprietary code if they
use open source drivers. That is not what the GPL says,” he
explained.

“Not all software used in Linux — including drivers — has to
fall under the GPL license. The Linux inventor, Linus Torvalds,
released his operating system under the GPL because he thought it
was the best protection, according to Wacha. The GPL was not
created for Linux.”

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