[Novalug] Possible Novell Ban on Selling Linux

[gregory pryzby]

On Sun, Feb 04, 2007 at 04:13:24PM -0500, Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> gregory pryzby wrote:
> > NO. MSoft has said they will not sue users of Novell's SUSE Linux.
> > They made no such promise to anyone else, and that is the issue.
> >
> > You can write ANYTHING you want at ANY level (kernel to userspace) and
> > license it how you want as long as you respect the licenses as
> > appropriate for anything you use. 
> >
> > So, you can write a proprietary linux module. That is called 'tainting
> > the kernel'. 
> >
> > If you are doing it for yourself or your organization, you don't have
> > to provide anything to anyone. 
> >
> > But, IANAL.
> 
> So I guess my real question is:  can you distribute a tainted kernel?  I
> couldn't find a clear answer from http://www.tux.org/lkml/ and the link
> for "Linus has forwarded me a message he sent to someone else to clarify
> his views" seems to be broken.

As a company I can taint the kernel with a module I provide. I believe
Veritas does this today.

I have no idea what GPL V3 will do, mostly because there is a new
version coming and I have no idea what it will say.

> Seems to me that all Linus really has to do is modify some of his
> policies to fit the new situation, and any of the problems caused by
> patents would get fixed.

Linus is about freedom. 

<getting out flame-proof gear and putting it on>

I am in agreement with Mandrake and Rasterman (or at least what they
believed when I last discussed this with them early in 2001). 

BSD is a free license. It allows the person who gets the code to do
what they want with it. That includes using it in a proprietary
'thing' and give no renumeration to the original developers. 

That is freedom. 

While I can see the advantages of the GPL I do not believe it gives
the user freedom, but the code. I believe it says the code is more
free and therefore more important than me.

</getting out flame-proof gear and putting it on>

Ok, I exaggerated, but hopefully it gives you something to think
about. In the past I have had the group agree on a license and not
imposed my beliefs. I am happy there is GPL and other 'open source
licenses' and I respect those who choose what they do for their own
reasons, regardless of if I agree with them.

-- 
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
fingerprint: 8A1A DB90 869F 5DD1 D6E9 EEB6 C156 6B04 849F A86F
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