Bah, wrong argument. Microsoft explicitly allows you to create a closed
source kernel driver.
You're making the assumption that an IHV needs Microsoft's permission to create and distribute a closed source driver. That's never been tested in court, which means no one really knows for sure, but I don't think any IHV actually needs MS's permission. I believe that MS "gives" permission onlyu to keep things simple and to eliminate the need to go to court.
The Linux kernel does not allow you to do such a
thing.
I don't think the Linux kernel developers have the authority to give or take away such a privilege.
> In fact, numerous copyright holders of the Linux kernel (myself
included) have explicitly stated that you are not allowed to do such a thing, and that would be very hard to defend against in court.
I don't agree with that at all. Creating a driver that calls a kernel API does not associate my driver with the kernel in any sense of copyright. The two are separate entities. But then, that's just my opinion, and IANAL, so I guess all we can do is agree to disagree.
-- Timur Tabi Staff Software Engineer timur.tabi@xxxxxxxxxxx
-- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ FAQ: http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/
