Sorry for again posting something OT, but I think the result of this discussion will in the end provide valuable input to a lot of driver authors.
On Sun, Aug 07, 2005 at 05:01:34PM +0200, Harald Welte wrote: > On Sun, Aug 07, 2005 at 10:32:07AM +0300, Kalle Valo wrote: > > Harald Welte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > > I don't want to turn this list into a list of legal discussion, but > > > since I'm heavily dealing with exactly those issues during my > > > gpl-violations.org efforts, I thought I share some of the facts. > > > > Thanks for your answer, it cleared up things. I also don't want to > > discuss legal things here, we can discuss it more privately. But I'll > > just ask one more question in public: > > > > > So in general, at least if you're doing that kind of work within the EU, > > > I wouldn't be worried all that much. > > > > That's good news. But what about inclusion to the official Linux > > kernel? Can a driver reverse-engineered in EU be included to the > > kernel? (Big part of Linux is developed in US, I guess.) > > I will consult my legal counsel about this. Ok, as it seems the matter has not yet been investigated thoroughly enough from a legal point of view. The German institute for law and opensource software (http://www.ifross.org/) is interested in writing up and publishing a legal article on that subject, but that will certainly take some time for legal research, etc. I'll be advising them on technical matters and get back to you as soon there is some result. The analysis will be based on the EU copyright directive and should therefore be more-or-less valid for all EU member states. The US is totally different. As indicated before my holidays (just got back yesterday), I'll contact Eben Moglen about this, but first want to write up some explanations, questions, ... to give him the correct input. -- - Harald Welte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://gnumonks.org/ ============================================================================ "Privacy in residential applications is a desirable marketing option." (ETSI EN 300 175-7 Ch. A6)
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