How is what they are doing illegal? How it is even "bad"? They obviously
can't give up their IP. Them providing binary modules wrapped in GPL
glue (so anyone can fix most kernel incompatabilities) is a good thing
for Linux. Many people and businesses would not be using Linux if they
did not do that.
I think that at the moment the general consensus is that it is ok to use
the Linux kernel APIs (but not the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL ones) from binary
modules _if_ _and_ _only_ _if_ the driver was originally written elsewhere
and ported to the Linux kernel. Otherwise it's a derivative work, and
must therefore be GPLed. Yes it's kinda draconian, but it's generally
been for the betterment of the Open Source community.
BTW, to all you "But my drivers must be proprietary!" nerds out there, take a look at 3ware, Adaptec, etc. They have _great_ hardware and yet they release all of their drivers under the GPL. They get free updates to new kernel APIs too!
Cheers, Kyle Moffett
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