Re: kernel 2.6.8 pwc patches and counterpatches

[Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

On Gwe, 2004-08-27 at 17:26, Kenneth Lavrsen wrote:
> Greg decided that for fanatic and extremist reasons the 10000s - maybe 
> 100000s - of people that have invested in a Webcamera like a Logitech or 
> Philips can throw away their camera if they want to keep their Linux 
> systems up to date in future.

>From before the driver went in people have been pointing this out and
pointing out the decompress library belongs in user space. Nor did
anyone force the Nemosoft people to do this. If the base kernel version
is GPL then the version with the compressor added probably isnt GPL, but
Nemosoft wrote the whole driver so they can release a non-free whole
driver anyway

> And what about Nemosoft. Ideally it is pretty wrong of him to pull off the 
> driver from his site. That makes things even worse.

I would talk to Philips about doing it properly - in user space. I doubt
they are amused by Nemosoft pulling their stuff either. Unfortunately
its what happens when people rely on binary drivers and promises - they
get shafted.