GPL-only symbol Error

Jeff Haran jharan at bytemobile.com
Wed Nov 23 13:05:19 EST 2011


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg KH [mailto:greg at kroah.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 6:50 PM
> To: Jeff Haran
> Cc: Guillaume Knispel; Graeme Russ; Sengottuvelan S; Kernel Newbies
> Subject: Re: GPL-only symbol Error
> 
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 06:10:27PM -0800, Jeff Haran wrote:
> > But it doesn't do anybody any good to spread misinformation about
this
> > topic, particularly with regard to what is and isn't legal.
> 
> I agree, please don't continue it, but rather, consult a lawyer if you
> have further questions.
> 
> greg k-h

You are the one who said it was illegal. To quote your previous post:

"It is not legal and companies have gotten into big trouble by trying to
do that"

I said this:

"I've seen others when faced with this who build their own kernels from
sources just modify the problematic EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()s to
EXPORT_SYMBOL()s. I don't know if that is legal. I wouldn't do it
personally. Consult a lawyer before you go down that road."

And when I asked you to provide evidence of the legal trouble you
mentioned, all you could come up with was allusions to legal disputes
regarding a different source package, Samba, which if I understood your
response, never even went to trial. No trial, no legal precedent.

If anybody might be guilty of spreading of misinformation, it's you. All
I have done is expressed personal doubts and asked questions. Maybe
doing this would be illegal, maybe it wouldn't be, that's why I said "I
don't know if that is legal" but you so far have completely failed to
justify your assertion that it is illegal.

At least that's my legal layman's personal opinion,

Jeff Haran







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