[olug] [OT] Video Card Recommendation

[Luke-Jr]

On Sunday 29 November 2009 11:16:22 pm T. J. Brumfield wrote:
> The driver API itself is designed to be open for anyone to call, even
> for proprietary modules.

There is no driver API, there are internal kernel symbols. Even if there were 
an API, the GPL explicitly forbids linking either to or from incompatible 
code.

> > They've been 'caught' plenty, just not sued.
> 
> They haven't been sued because it isn't a violation. The FSF does go
> after every violation it finds. I believe the FSF said recently they
> find a GPL violation almost daily, and they try to pursue all of them.

The FSF does not hold any copyrights on Linux, and thus has no legal basis to 
file a lawsuit. In reality, were one of the copyright holders to do so, the 
community would flame them for defending their copyright, and would make 
nVidia into a martyr. That is inevitably why it hasn't happened and probably 
never will.