Re: [hsflinux] [PATCH] Blacklist binary-only modules lying about their license

Giuliano Colla
2004-04-29T18:50:46Z

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger ha scritto:

>Hi,
>
>LinuxAnt offers binary only modules without any sources. To circumvent our
>MODULE_LICENSE checks LinuxAnt has inserted a "\0" into their declaration:
>
>MODULE_LICENSE("GPL\0for files in the \"GPL\" directory; for others, only
>LICENSE file applies");
>
>Since string comparisons stop at the first "\0" character, the kernel is
>tricked into thinking the modules are GPL. Btw, the "GPL" directory they
>are speaking about is empty.
>
>The attached patch blacklists all modules having "Linuxant" or "Conexant"
>in their author string. This may seem a bit broad, but AFAIK both
>companies never have released anything under the GPL and have a strong
>history of binary-only modules.
>
>
>Regards,
>Carl-Daniel
>
>
<snip>

Let's try not to be ridiculous, please.

As an end user, if I buy a full fledged modem, I get some amount of
proprietary, non GPL, code which executes within the board or the
PCMCIA card of the modem. The GPL driver may even support the
functionality of downloading a new version of *proprietary* code into
the flash Eprom of the device. The GPL linux driver interfaces with it,
and all is kosher.
On the other hand, I have the misfortune of being stuck with a
soft-modem, roughly the *same* proprietary code is provided as a binary
file, and a linux driver (source provided) interfaces with it. In that
case the kernel is flagged as "tainted".

But in both cases, if the driver is poorly written, because of
developer's inadequacy, or because of the proprietary code being poorly
documented and/or implemented, my kernel may go nuts, be it tainted or not.

Can you honestly tell apart the two cases, if you don't make a it a case
of "religion war"?

For sake of completeness. *My* download of

https://www.linuxant.com/drivers/hsf/full/archive/hsfmodem-6.03.00lnxt04032800full/hsfmodem-6.03.00lnxt04032800full.tar.gz

contains, in the /modules/GPL/ directory the following files:

-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 18860 ago 23 2003 COPYING
-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 13609 gen 18 00:51 oscompat.h
-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 32573 mar 26 09:16 serial_cnxt.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 3392 ago 23 2003 serial_cnxt.h
-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 57857 ago 24 2003 serial_core.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 colla colla 9789 ago 22 2003 serial_core.h

I strongly hope that developers' efforts will be addressed to more
valuable topics than detecting the "Linuxant" string in a loadable
module. Not forgetting that Linux\0ant, L\0inuxant, etc. would display
the same way ;-)

Kind Regards

--
Ing. Giuliano Colla
Direttore Tecnico
Copeca srl
Bologna
Italy