Re: [PATCH] USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only

TimC
2008-01-28T21:49:31Z

Greg KH <greg@kroah.com> said on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:02:32 -0800:
> FYI, this is a patch that will be sent out in the next round to Linus
> for inclusion in 2.6.25.
>
> If anyone has any objections about it, please let me know.
>
> thanks,
>
> greg k-h
>
> --------
>
> From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
> Subject: USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only
>
> Over two years ago, the Linux USB developers stated that they believed
> there was no way to create a USB kernel driver that was not under the
> GPL. This patch moves the USB apis to enforce that decision.
>
> There are no known closed source USB drivers in the wild, so this patch
> should cause no problems.

The near paperweight of Avermedia A828 Hybrid FM Volar nevertheless
works with their closed module[1] at least as a digital tuner and a
pretty crap FM tuner, despite the warning in syslog that it will no
longer work in short order. Yes, I was suckered in by their claim
that "it works under Linux", wasn't I?

I would have thought it would be fairly easy to write open drivers for
it, given that it has pretty standard chips:
Cypress FX2, WM8739, Conexant CX2584x, Xceive XC3028 and Zarlink MT352

[1] http://www.avermedia.com/EN/default.aspx?TYPE=test.htm&PT=downloadD1&tv_TCAT_POS=0&CATNO0=D&IDX=2.1&CNT=1&CATNO1=D2&PID=471071067-1556&UCN=BAB4C