Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in closed source drivers?

Richard Stallman
2003-01-03T20:23:48Z

Yeah, if only the company that has invested millions in trying to scratch
out a place to stand, if only they would give us their intellectual
property for free,

The term "intellectual property" lumps together copyrights, patents,
trademarks and other more obscure areas of law, all of which are
totally different. (See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html.)
Its main use is to obfuscate the difference between these areas and
discourage careful clear thinking.

The clear part of your statement is your attitude toward our
community. You express derision for the very idea of asking a company
to contribute to free software. We are fortunate that Netscape, Sun,
and IBM, and the people who won their partial cooperation, did not
take your advice.

Of all the programs in our community, your hostility falls most
squarely on kernels, since kernels are where most drivers go. Every
Linux developer should take note of the wishes you have just implied
for the future development of Linux.

Give it up, Stallman, we live in a capitalistic world. The Russians
tried communism and it didn't work.

The free software movement has always existed within Capitalism, and
fits within the Capitalist system. Our views have little in common
with Communism--we encourage business as long as it respects other
people's freedom to cooperate. Nothing could be more different from
the command economy that failed than the decentralized free software
community.

Inaccurate though it is, our enemies sometimes call us Communists.
Perhaps because Communism is easier to attack than our real views.

It is the world of proprietary software and other non-free information
that resembles the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union made strenuous
efforts to prevent and punish forbidden copying. The US today is
using analogous repressive methods to do the same thing. See