RE: Lynx AES16 driver

[Giuliano Pochini <pochini@shiny.it>]

On 19-Jan-2004 Michal Kostrzewa wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Please help me in that license related case:
> I want to write a Lynx AES16 (http://www.lynxstudio.com/aes16.html) ALSA
> driver (I'm from Warsaw University of Technology and we want to use this
> card in our investigations). I wrote to Lynxstudio, and I received an
> answer that driver related specs are accessible under terms of
> Non-Disclosure Agreement which doesn't allow distribution of source code
> or any derived materials thus preventing development of ALSA driver as
> ALSA drivers are open source.

Yes, I got the same answer when I asked about the LynxTwo.


> My question is: has an ALSA driver to be an open source?

Yes, otherwise you have to release binary drivers for each ALSA version,
kernel version, compiler, architecture.  It's impossible.

> On www.alsa-project.org there is a sentence: "ALSA is released under the
> GPL (GNU General Public license) and the LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public
> License)." (please note the LGPL). I understand, that there can be a
> driver distributed in binary form (e.g in fact firmware needed to run
> hdsp are distributed in binary form), GPL means that you cannot close
> the ALSA core framework.

If you split your driver in two parts: one (GPL) that interfaces with ALSA
and the real driver (non-GPL). There are many examples. eg. The ToucamPro
webcam driver, Nvidia drivers and my driver for Echoaudio soundcards.


> Is this whole situation hopeless? Have I any arguments to use in the
> discussion with Lynxstudio?

Yep :(  They don't like the "invasive" GPL. I can't understand those
people. We are speaking about a *driver*. The card is the product they
sell. Customers don't buy the card because they need to use the driver.


--
Giuliano.


-------------------------------------------------------
The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn