Re: Legal issues with having Linux use Windows device drivers
On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Geoffrey L. Brimhall wrote:
> Aside from the technical issues of having Linux use windows device drivers
> (such as the video card drivers), are there any legal reasons why a person
> could not use the device drivers written for the MS Windows operating system ?
<snip>
I suspect there *is* a legal issue here. If you buy MS Windows, you
install the device drivers on your system as part of the software. (I
haven't checked MS's license, but they may have a license like "You can
use it, but we still own it.") But the software is still part of the
Windows operating system. I don't think you can go out and program your
own "Windows clone" operating system and then use a bunch of Windows
drivers off their distribution. Microsoft would be understandably irate
about this. And even if it wasn't a legal issue, if Microsoft wanted to
hassle you about it, you'd be just as beat up as if they'd sued you.
Looked at another way, MS *wrote* that device driver, and they've made it
part of their suite of programs. If you go off use it in some other
operating system without their permission, they might not like it. Yes,
when you write something, you're likely to GPL it and we can use it any
way we want (almost). But Bill's never given away anything in his life.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the world of Microsoft is not the world of Linux, and
the ownership of things in Gatesville is a lot more important than it is
in Linusland.
<snip>
Paul M. Foster
Reply to: