On Friday 09 June 2006 22:33, Lee Revell wrote: > On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 22:12 -0400, M P Smoak wrote: > > 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. Thanks for the answer; I was thinking of companies that don't want to go the patent route. Marv
