From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S267434AbUGNO5f (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Jul 2004 10:57:35 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S267432AbUGNOyo (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Jul 2004 10:54:44 -0400 Received: from kinesis.swishmail.com ([209.10.110.86]:33292 "EHLO kinesis.swishmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S267406AbUGNOxW (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Jul 2004 10:53:22 -0400 Message-ID: <40F54E9F.5090800@techsource.com> Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 11:17:51 -0400 From: Timothy Miller MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Petr Titera CC: Robert Lowery , Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: [OT] Belkin Bluetooth Access Point GPL violation References: <200407100920.i6A9Kr808614@mail001.syd.optusnet.com.au> <40F021B8.1@century.cz> In-Reply-To: <40F021B8.1@century.cz> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Petr Titera wrote: > Hello, > > I've try to look at firware image and it really seems that they do > not use modules in kernel and that bluetooth drivers are compiled in. So it > really seems that they should either distribute source for their stack > or do not distribute it at all. > Even if they did use modules, the module interface is not necessarily a GPL barrier. The fact that the unit becomes useless if you remove the kernel or the bluetooth drivers means that it's a complete work and not merely an aggregate. I don't understand why companies think they can get away with this kind of intellectual property theft. I also don't understand why they don't use BSD instead. They wouldn't have ANY of these problems.