[mythtv-users] Commercial releases of MythTV?

[steve at nexusuk.org]

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On Fri, 19 Mar 2004, Ray Olszewski wrote:

> This sort of "haven't read ... but I thought" response is exactly why I 
> suggested that anyone wishing to discuss what the GPL requires actually 
> READ the GPL before replying. Please find the section that you "thought" 
> required this and identify it.

IANAL (I guess most other people on this list aren't either) - legal 
documents are really hard work for most people to understand.  This is why 
most people rely on listening to other people's interpretatiions nistead 
of reading the actual licences themselves.

> Someones else in this thread just mentioned nVidia being "yelled at" for 
> its practices. There are many people in the Linux community (me included) 
> who do not like nVidia's policies about its drivers. But my not liking 
> these policies doesn't make them violations of the GPL.

As I understand it, nVidia's practices are borderline, depending on what 
you consider the term "derived works" to mean.  However, I for one don't 
see the point in scaring away one of the few companies to actually support 
linux because they might perhapse be breaking the licence under some 
interpretations.
nVidia do have one of the better approaches to linux driver design.  Their 
opensource interface layer means that you can compile the drivers against 
practically any kernel, which IMHO is much more sane than the precompiled 
binary drivers that other companies offer - there have been a number of 
times when I've needed to put 2 pieces of hardware in one box where both 
devices have binary only drivers and there is no common kernel that 
they're compatable with.  In that case there is absolutely no option but 
to bin one of the pieces of hardware and live without it.

- -- 

 - Steve                                             http://www.nexusuk.org/

     Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence

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