On Thu, Nov 06, 2014 at 08:34:40PM -0500, random...@fastmail.us wrote: >None of this has been examined by a court.
It's because Linus T. and many core kernel devs decided not to go to court against closed source modules. The linux GNU GPLv2 has only the syscall exception and does not contain the "lesser" exception that would allow binary blobs to live below the syscalls. The syscall exception has been in there since the beginning I presume. Adding the "lesser" exception would be license change. Thus, nvidia ass holes can keep distributing their binary blob for linux, since linux is actually a GNU 'lesser' GPLv2 kernel which in *not* a plain GNU GPVv2. It's a balance of power issue: if linux wants to become a sensible alternative on the desktop, it must have a nvidia driver because they have a huge market share. Then, it was decided to let go... regards, -- Sylvain