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posted by n1 on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the learning-how-to-do-GPL-properly dept.

Liliputing reports:

Chinese chip maker Allwinner has joined the Linux Foundation as part of an effort to improve its relationship with the open source community.

While you can run Ubuntu and other Linux-based software on many tablets and TV boxes with Allwinner chips, the company has a history of violating GPL by failing to make source code available.

The company's involvement with the Linux Foundation could help change that. Maybe.

A few years ago developers discovered they could get Ubuntu and other Linux-based software to run on devices like the Mele A1000 and Rikomagic MK802, which helped make these mini PCs popular with folks looking for more than a simple TV box.

There's even a Sunxi Linux community dedicated to developing open source software for products with Allwinner processors. But the community has called out Allwinner for numerous GPL violations.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday June 16 2015, @12:48PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday June 16 2015, @12:48PM (#196831) Journal

    Binary drivers are not completely illegal. AMD and Nvidia video drivers are good examples. BUT they use a few tricks to get around the GPL. It all has to do with "derivative work". If my driver relies heavily on the kernel to function, it is a derivative work and must be GPL. BUT here is how AMD and Nvidia side step this: They make an LGPL wrapper module that calls proprietary driver code. So the LGPL wrapper is indeed a derivative work but is under the LGPL which allows calling of proprietary code. Here is a good link explaining this: http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/gpl_modules.html [yarchive.net] And a further explanation of how Nvidia does it in this thread: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/167773/how-does-the-gpl-static-vs-dynamic-linking-rule-apply-to-interpreted-languages [stackexchange.com]

    Nvidia and AMD use an LGPL middle man to bypass the GPL module requirements. Allwinner is simply writing strait module code and not releasing it under the GPL as required.

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