[ale] Are our Ethernet drivers in danger?

Wed Jul 4 00:15:22 EDT 2001

Hello All,
Enough of this.  Why not someone email Donald instead of beating this into
the ground ?  Surely, he has the legalize on this subject.

Steve

=======================================================
| Steve Nicholas             |                        |
| Unix System Programmer     |  A risk is not a risk  |
| Georgia State University   |  until it is taken.    | 
| snicholas at gsu.edu          |                        |
| 404-651-1062               |  BBROYGBVGW            |
=======================================================

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Joseph A. Knapka wrote:

> Darin Lang wrote:
> > 
> > No law is violated.  GPL'd software IS available for the private sector.  In
> > fact it is the only software that truly is available to the private sector.
> > Someone perhaps does not understand the term private sector which means
> > non-governmental sector. Nasa's research and development and in fact all
> > governmental research is paid for by public money, therefore the technology,
> > etc belongs to the people. That's the theory anyways, anybody can see that
> > it doesn't work that way, or perhaps it does it just takes 30 years for it
> > to be declassified (ecryption, GPS, etc).
> > 
> > What is actually being pushed below is M$'s latest propoganda campaign to
> > discredit Open Source, Free Software Foundation, GPL, Linux, etc. The
> > semantics are being attacked and it is being contended that the law means
> > that the gov't should sell the tech to a "private company" (like, oh I don't
> > know...hmmm....maybe M$) and give them a Monopoly on the
> > technology/development. "private company" and "private sector" are two
> > entirely different things.
> 
> I agree that MicroSoft's line on the entire Open Source issue
> boils down to a huge steaming ball of FUD. However, there
> are a couple of actual points buried in there.
> 
> An argument made elsewhere in the same forum, and which makes a lot
> of sense to me, is that any product (software, human genome, etc)
> whose development is funded by taxpayer dollars should be placed
> in the public domain, unencumbered by any sort of IP restrictions
> whatsoever, be they GPL, patents, or what have you. Private
> companies could pick up those products and develop them further
> using a proprietary model; open-sourcers could pick them up
> and develop them further using the Open Source model. Everyone
> wins, basically. Donald Becker's work would fall into this
> category - though if this policy were in place, he probably
> wouldn't have actually been able to develop the Linux Ethernet
> drivers on NASA time, since a PD release would violate the
> terms of the GPL.
> 
> I can see why for-profit developers are wary of the GPL - it
> prevents them from making a profit on their own work which
> is derived from GPL code. Sure, they're free not to use GPL
> code in their products, but when a GPL'd piece of software
> is the highest-quality candidate for a particular function,
> everyone loses when a developer chooses *not* to use that
> code in their product - especially the user. (And personally,
> I expect that in almost every case, when a proprietary
> solution and an Open Source solution for the same problem
> exist, the Open Source solution will win on quality every
> time, in the long run.) And the "derived work" language
> in the GPL seems to prohibit one from even *looking at*
> the code of a GPL'd product if one wants to avoid
> GPL encumbrance. (Note: I don't really know what I'm
> talking about when it comes to the legal implications
> of the GPL, but my naive reading seems to largely agree
> with the opinions of several knowledgable folks who
> posted to the SV forum.)
> 
> -- Joe
> 
> > 
> > -- or Consult the Oracle Temple of the Magic Chicken
> >     http://MoonBughead.com/Oracle/
> > Darin
> > 
> > on 7/3/01 6:21 PM, Joseph A. Knapka at jknapka at earthlink.net wrote:
> > 
> > > This is a quite from a message in the siliconvalley.com forum
> > > on open-source vs commercial software:
> > > <URL:
> > > http://forums.siliconvalley.com/msgshow.cfm/msgboard=5968009897410465&msg=4951
> > > 219996565791&page=1&idDispSub=5145094516046185>.
> > >
> > > Essentially, the argument is that Donald Becker's release under
> > > GPL of Ethernet drivers developed with NASA funding is a violation
> > > of federal law. Does anyone here know enough about IP law to have
> > > an informed opinion about this matter?
> > >
> > >> | Search | Send to a Friend | Help
> > >> << Prev Msg | Next Msg >>
> > >>
> > >> Author
> > >> Message
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Brett_Glass
> > >> 06/28/01 10:31 PM
> > >>
> > >> RE: RE: The government should not sponsor
> > >> GPLed work
> > >>
> > >> You [Bruce Perens - JAK] write:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> NASA has sponsored a good deal of [work on Linux].
> > >> For example, many of the ethernet drivers by Donald
> > >> Becker were sponsored by NASA.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> If so, it is contrary to Federal law for those drivers to have been
> > >> licensed under the GPL, because Federal law requires that the fruits of
> > >> NASA's research and development be available for use by the private
> > >> sector to develop new products. A vendor that wishes to use the code
> > >> might well want to pursue this.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -- Joe Knapka
> > > "You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
> > > can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
> > > // Linux MM Documentation in progress:
> > > // http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
> > > * Evolution is an "unproven theory" in the same sense that gravity is. *
> > > --
> > > To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.
> > >
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.
> 
> -- Joe Knapka
> "You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
>  can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
> // Linux MM Documentation in progress:
> // http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
> * Evolution is an "unproven theory" in the same sense that gravity is. *
> --
> To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.
> 

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