policy on GPL'd drivers?

[Wilko Bulte]

On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 02:35:41PM +0200, Stijn Hoop wrote:
> 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?

Yes, see for example the GPL_ed floating point emulator.

However the idea is that all GPL infected stuff be isolated, allowing a
fully working kernel without GPL stuff in there.

> > <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

A BSD license is ***strongly*** prefered.

> the answer to this question might be interesting.

-- 
|   / o / /_  _   		wilko at FreeBSD.org
|/|/ / / /(  (_)  Bulte