On 7/06/2013 3:00 AM, Stef Walter wrote:
The original 4 clause BSD license had a similar clause, and was
not GPL
compatible. You can read the FSF's information about that here:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#OriginalBSD
There are two categories of incompatibly in that list - those that
are actually incompatible and those which the FSF or more accurately
Richard Stallman simply don't want you to use because the original
acknowledgement is considered "obnoxious". In practical terms, you
have to actually see the "a module covered by the GPL and a module
covered by the LICENSE_NAME cannot legally be linked together" in
items in that list to locate something actually being claimed by the
FSF as legally incompatible rather than philosophically
incompatible.
Read through http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html
and also do note the conflicting statements at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#OrigBSD
which offers a different view point on the topic as well.
Those same pages also list that you simply cannot have a non-free
driver with a Linux kernel and contain piles of information about
linking approaches and what is considered okay and not okay which
are interpretations to support a philosophical viewpoint noted as
not supported by the actual license text.
There is a substantial difference you get between the advice from
the FSF legal team and the "political team" in this and many areas.
As always, seek legal advice from an appropriately qualified lawyer
- I doubt there are any on this mailing list.
However I think you'll find that the new header files will have a
different set of text on the front. Whether or not the OASIS text
causes problems "However, this document itself may not be modified
in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references
to OASIS, except as needed for the purpose of developing any
document or deliverable produced by an OASIS Technical Committee (in
which case the rules applicable to copyrights, as set forth in the
OASIS IPR Policy, must be followed) or as required to translate it
into languages other than English." and how that gets reflected into
the header files remains to be see.
Tim.
(veteran of many an email exchange with Richard Stallman and many
interactions with IP lawyers).
