David Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Two of the specific arguments I've heard are (a) that the board (and > > its hardware interfaces that the documentation would describe) involve > > IP licensed from a third party, which the board manufacturer does not > > have a legal right to disclose,
> If they can't disclose it, they can't sell it. If they can't sell it, it's > fraud to tell someone that they can buy it. If a contract with a third party > limits your ability to sell something to someone, you have to *tell* *them* > that they do not get all of the rights of ownership because you don't own > some of them and hence can't transfer them. They aren't /selling/ you the rights to the driver, just charging you for its /use/. [...] > > or (b) that there is, in fact, no > > suitable documentation, because the boards are developed somewhat > > fluidly and the driver is developed directly from low-level knowledge > > that simply isn't written down in a form suitable for passing on. > You can't sell something that doesn't exist. If you sell a car even though > you can't explain how anyone could drive it, that's fraud. Nonsense. [...] > > If you're building products with no expectation of supporting outside > > driver developers, both of those are quite possible. > And they're both quite fraudulent. You cannot both sell something and keep > its construction a secret. It is quite regularly done, so this argument won't fly. -- Dr. Horst H. von Brand User #22616 counter.li.org Departamento de Informatica Fono: +56 32 2654431 Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria +56 32 2654239 Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile Fax: +56 32 2797513 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
