Synaptics MIT license approved

Alan Cox alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk
Thu May 17 08:21:34 PDT 2007


> As Alan noted, the issue is derivation rather than linking. For this to 
> actually be a problem, we would need to hold that the X server is a 
> derived work of the GPLed Synaptics driver (thereby falling under the 

Or vice versa.

> proprietary userspace applications. I think this is clearly an 
> unreasoanble interpretation.

I would talk to a lawyer at that point. One thing that I've found
repeatedly is that the legal idea of derived works is very different to
the apparent logic a computing person will apply to it and the caselaw
they draw on is usually equivalent and not from computing. That makes it
(annoyingly) a very tricky area for non legal people.

On the other hand I doubt X.org has any plans to sue its users ;)

Alan



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