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Excellent as always

Story: Report: Moving Closer to 802.11nTotal Replies: 2
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azerthoth

Aug 27, 2007
9:12 PM EDT 		Thanks TC, you did a great job on that one, the update is much appreciated.

However I would like to discuss, with the community one of the statements and supplied and read link about the legality of closed source kernel modules.

For argument I will use one that is essentially optional for non gamers.The nVidia driver, which with luck will be a moot point in the future. While I can see and agree with the argument that including this kernel linked driver is illegal, after market modification i.e. after I install my system, can not by definition be illegal.

My reasoning for this is fairly simple, once I set my system up I am free to use and abuse it in any way I see fit. By the GPL, there is no restriction that would kick in as long as I didn't try and redistribute it. This makes the closed source kernel module a non participant as far as the GPL is concerned. Shipping the driver enabled by default though ... very illegal unless one does some scripting chicanery such as Sabayon did, using a boot time linker where the module can be enabled/disabled via a boot parameter passed from Grub.

Any thoughts, rebuttals, fried green tomato's?
tuxchick

Aug 27, 2007
9:43 PM EDT 		Thanks for the kind words, Azerthoth. IANAL, which doesn't seem all that meaningful anyway- I've seen opinions generated from random Scrabble tiles that made as much sense as some legal opinions. But I digress. I think you're right, at least that's how I've always understood how it works.
Bob_Robertson

Aug 28, 2007
11:51 AM EDT 		Debian makes it work by 1) putting the modules in a separate repository plainly marked "non-free", 2) making it so I have to compile and install it.

Sure they make a script to do the hard work, but it's still _me_ that is doing it, not them.

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