Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

From: Trent Waddington
Date: Thu Feb 15 2007 - 01:35:39 EST


On 2/15/07, v j <vj.linux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This has nothing to do with politics. I am not a Linux contributor.

Here-in lies the problem. I am one of the few people willing to state
openly that I wish those who can, would use their legal claims to stop
people like you from writing proprietary drivers. Although you (or
your company) clearly has the ability to contribute to Linux, you have
chosen not to. Instead, you just leach off those that do. As such, I
believe you and your ilk are ethically deplorable and the fact that
you would come here to try to point out to the contributors that they
are going to lose people like you if they don't stop "threatening"
your drivers not only baffles me, it sickens me.

At least with NVIDIA and ATI they're not actually profiting from the
existence of Linux, but you're actually selling the stuff and you
don't even consider the very reasonable proposition of sharing your
source code in return. It's not like they're asking for money.. man,
this is the Linux project, they don't even ask for copyright
assignment or allegiance to an ideology..

Do the right thing, cough up your source code, get it integrated into
the tree and let the community do what it does so well.

Trent
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