10 Jun
2006
10 Jun
'06
12:53 a.m.
On Friday 09 June 2006 22:33, Lee Revell wrote:
On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 22:12 -0400, M P Smoak wrote:
Thanks for the answer; I was thinking of companies that don't want to go
the patent route.
Marv
So a company that wanted to have a proprietary
connection to linux
could write an open source blob and a closed connection to the blob
for their closed hardware/software? ie linux remains useable for
companies.
Not if the closed part was specifically developed to run on Linux.
The key is whether it's a "derived work" as far as copyright law is
concerned or not.
If there's IP in your hardware than you absolutely cannot risk
disclosing (maybe because you went for trade secret protection rather
than patenting it) you can put the secret part of the driver in
userspace and keep it closed.