On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 7:18 PM, Luke -Jr [email protected] wrote:
and the device, the cord itself would be "GPL"d and the GPL forbids it to link with the device.
The GPL doesn't forbid anything. The GPL allows distribution of things, with conditions.
Linux has code for dealing with video cards. The nVidia driver just elaborates on the specific method of dealing with an nVidia video card. That is, they are exactly the same.
That's a different matter. If the nVidia drivers are derivative works of other linux video card drivers, then they would be derivative works of something distributeed under the GPL. If they are clean original work that functions against the documented modular interface, they are not. Without knowing anything to indicate otherwise, my guess is that the nVidia drivers for linux are derivative code of nVidia drivers for Solaris or UnixWare or something comparable, that they already had in-house, and getting them to work with linux was a matter of studying just enough linux video card driver interface to get them to work, analogous to attaching a different kind of plug to an appliance. That approach would take them the least amount of work, and exempting whatever pieces they might have lifted from existing linux code from copyright under the functional language doctrine.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/faq.cgi#QID198 and its neighbors.
Request for comments: After completing my current degree, should I get another one, in law? That was my original plan, after all, back in the day.