policy on GPL'd drivers?

[Stijn Hoop]

On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 07:28:29AM -0500, David Leimbach wrote:
> I have the GPLd source to the nforce drivers for Linux
> to support the nVidia nforce and nforce2 drivers in the kernel.
> 
> To port these to FreeBSD would be an interesting task [if it hasn't
> already been done] and I have been looking for an excuse to get
> down and dirty with FBSD.
> [Yes... talk is cheap... just do it... Nike-a-go-go etc etc... :)]
> 
> What is the policy on drivers that are clearly going to have to be
> GPLd by the viral clause since I am referencing a GPL driver to do the
> porting work myself?  Are these allowed in the kernel?
> 
> <semi-joke>
> Can we have a "tainted" flag for kernels running GPL drivers :).
> </semi-joke>

I'm interested in this too -- I have a working FreeBSD prototype of the
i8k Linux driver, fan control for Dell laptops. I was planning to ask
the author if he was willing to relicense it to BSD, but failing that
the answer to this question might be interesting.

--Stijn

-- 
"What if everything you see is more than what you see -- the person next to
you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another
world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you
accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really
is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected
things."
		-- Shigeru Miyamoto
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