From: Timothy Miller <miller@techsource.com>
To: David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
Cc: Pascal Schmidt <der.eremit@email.de>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model]
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 16:58:03 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <3F62335B.9050202@techsource.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKAEIKGHAA.davids@webmaster.com
David Schwartz wrote:
> However, some people seem to be arguing that the GPL_ONLY symbols are in
> fact a license enforcement technique. If that's true, then when they
> distribute their code, they are putting additional restrictions not in the
> GPL on it. That is a GPL violation.
Agreed. GPL_ONLY is not a license restriction. It is a technical issue.
Binary-only modules are inherently untrustworthy (no open code review)
and undebuggable. It is therefore of technical merit to restrict both
what they can access in the kernel (GPL_ONLY) and limit how much kernel
developers should have to tolerate when they're involved.
But beyond this, there are some social issues. If someone finds a way
to work around this mechanism, they are breaking things to everyone
else's detriment. For a commercial entity to violate the GPL_ONLY
barrier is an insult to kernel developers AND to their customers who
will have trouble getting problems solved.
So, if a company works around GPL_ONLY, are they violating the GPL
license? Probably not. Does that make it OKAY? Probably not.
This is like finding a way to give a user space program access to kernel
resources. There are barriers put in place for a REASON because people
make mistakes when they write software. If no one did, we wouldn't have
any need for memory protection, would we.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2003-09-12 20:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 102+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <uess.1w0.9@gated-at.bofh.it>
[not found] ` <ujV3.1uP.13@gated-at.bofh.it>
2003-09-10 21:52 ` People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model] Pascal Schmidt
2003-09-10 22:26 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-10 22:34 ` Pascal Schmidt
2003-09-11 1:35 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-11 13:30 ` Eric W. Biederman
2003-09-11 18:39 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-11 18:45 ` Mike Fedyk
2003-09-13 17:52 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-13 23:54 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-13 17:34 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 10:55 ` Sean Estabrooks
2003-09-11 14:36 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-13 17:42 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-12 20:58 ` Timothy Miller [this message]
2003-09-12 21:47 ` Matt D. Robinson
2003-09-12 22:31 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-12 23:26 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-13 0:29 ` Matt D. Robinson
2003-09-13 17:42 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-13 5:38 ` jw schultz
2003-09-13 17:44 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-13 18:19 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-13 20:01 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-13 23:17 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 1:57 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-14 2:40 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 3:42 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-14 3:36 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 4:37 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-14 4:58 ` freed_symbols [Re: People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model]] Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 5:39 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-14 5:32 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 6:41 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-14 6:50 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 7:10 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 8:08 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-15 0:17 ` Henning P. Schmiedehausen
2003-09-15 5:57 ` Erik Andersen
2003-09-15 6:14 ` Nick Piggin
2003-10-05 0:52 ` Rob Landley
2003-10-05 1:05 ` Larry McVoy
2003-10-05 2:34 ` viro
2003-10-05 3:45 ` Larry McVoy
2003-10-05 10:24 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 13:56 ` Larry McVoy
2003-10-05 14:14 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 10:23 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 11:32 ` David Lang
2003-10-05 13:37 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 6:40 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-05 7:39 ` viro
2003-10-05 18:27 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 19:21 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-05 20:03 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 20:14 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-05 20:34 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 20:43 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-06 1:22 ` Larry McVoy
2003-10-06 1:37 ` David Lang
2003-10-06 1:51 ` Larry McVoy
2003-10-05 19:32 ` Maciej Zenczykowski
2003-10-05 19:47 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-05 20:38 ` David Woodhouse
2003-10-05 20:46 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-10-05 19:54 ` Arjan van de Ven
2003-09-14 8:45 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2003-09-15 0:16 ` Henning P. Schmiedehausen
2003-09-15 0:27 ` Justin Cormack
2003-09-14 21:40 ` People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model] David Schwartz
2003-09-15 8:06 ` David S. Miller
2003-09-14 2:51 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-14 3:05 ` GPL == DMCA [Re: People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model]] Andre Hedrick
2003-10-29 22:42 ` People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model] David Schwartz
2003-10-29 23:11 ` David S. Miller
2003-10-30 0:10 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-11 1:39 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-13 17:11 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-13 21:11 ` Pascal Schmidt
2003-09-13 21:19 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-13 21:12 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-13 22:09 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-13 22:30 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-14 1:16 ` Andrew Pimlott
2003-09-15 15:26 ` Martin Schlemmer
2003-09-13 23:00 ` Andre Hedrick
2003-09-12 21:04 ` Timothy Miller
2003-09-12 21:17 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-15 18:24 ` Timothy Miller
2003-09-15 20:17 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-13 18:09 ` Andre Hedrick
[not found] <fa.fq1hscm.1b7ai1k@ifi.uio.no>
[not found] ` <fa.n3hqp6f.1rkg0ob@ifi.uio.no>
2003-09-14 4:39 ` walt
[not found] <vpYm.1Bn.7@gated-at.bofh.it>
[not found] ` <vq84.1P5.7@gated-at.bofh.it>
2003-09-13 21:43 ` Pascal Schmidt
2003-09-13 9:08 Nicolas Mailhot
2003-09-13 9:49 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-13 14:37 ` Nicolas Mailhot
2003-09-13 17:16 ` Alan Cox
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2003-09-04 3:01 Driver Model David Schwartz
2003-09-10 14:59 ` People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model] Timothy Miller
2003-09-10 20:34 ` David Schwartz
2003-09-12 19:55 ` Timothy Miller
2003-09-13 14:18 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2003-09-13 17:58 ` Alan Cox
2003-09-10 23:35 ` James Clark
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