From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756661AbXIBSrD (ORCPT ); Sun, 2 Sep 2007 14:47:03 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750816AbXIBSqz (ORCPT ); Sun, 2 Sep 2007 14:46:55 -0400 Received: from srv5.dvmed.net ([207.36.208.214]:59950 "EHLO mail.dvmed.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750737AbXIBSqz (ORCPT ); Sun, 2 Sep 2007 14:46:55 -0400 Message-ID: <46DB051D.3010008@garzik.org> Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:46:53 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 (X11/20070719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Jonathan A. George" CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: "GPL weasels and the atheros stink" References: <46DAF70E.9060800@austin.rr.com> In-Reply-To: <46DAF70E.9060800@austin.rr.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: -4.3 (----) X-Spam-Report: SpamAssassin version 3.1.9 on srv5.dvmed.net summary: Content analysis details: (-4.3 points, 5.0 required) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Jonathan A. George wrote: > Question #1: Is it _ethical_ (legality aside) to take someone else's > actively maintained work (for example an OpenBSD driver) and make > changes which can not be shared/used by the original developer/maintainer? This happens all the time. It's called a fork. Forks happen for good reasons, bad reasons, dumb reasons, and smart reasons. Sometimes the useful changes can be shared back, and that's a good thing [for that situation]. Sometimes changes cannnot be shared back, and that's also a good thing [for that situation]. > Question #2: Is it _technically beneficial_ to branch an OSS work (for > example an OpenBSD driver) in such a way as to diminish the ability to > share contributions between projects? Can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. The reality OF THE CODE is such that *BSD and Linux share good SOLUTIONS quite often. That's a benefit of open source. And that's a good thing. Jeff