From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S964919AbVHaSmg (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:42:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S964920AbVHaSmg (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:42:36 -0400 Received: from [67.137.28.189] ([67.137.28.189]:50611 "EHLO vger") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S964919AbVHaSmg (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:42:36 -0400 Message-ID: <4315E88D.9020603@soleranetworks.com> Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:27:41 -0600 From: "Jeff V. Merkey" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040510 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Rik van Riel Cc: linux Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] DSFS Network Forensic File System for Linux Patches References: <4315DBE7.7080002@soleranetworks.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Rik van Riel wrote: >On Wed, 31 Aug 2005, Jeff V. Merkey wrote: > > > >>The Core File System code is a separate proprietary module and is not >>released under the GPL >> >> > >Are you going to post an analysis on the legality of this >on merkeylaw.com ? ;) > > > I am very open to discussions of this. Please go ahead and argue the merits of GPL vs. proprietary code. DSFS is platform neutral and will also run on Windows XP/2000/2003/Longhorn and Free BSD. It uses no kernel headers or kernel files. I have always taken the position that the GPL does not convert IP ownership. Since DSFS is hardware specific to our platforms, I do not believe it entails any issues with the GPL, and it uses published exports from the Linux kernel. The GPL also confers right to copy == copyright under US copyright laws. I don't believe that app vendors infringe the GPL on Linux. This is just another app, and I have disclosed and published all GPL code affected. The GPL terms that require GPL conversion of any code that runs on Linux is not supported by US Law. Many would disagree, but that's OK. In short, it's just like any other proprietary app running on Linux. If it uses no Linux code (which it does not), then the GPL does not apply to it . Jeff