Re: ALPS: Cirque Smart Cat Pro AG Touchpad Support

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:43:35 -0700
"Vadim Klishko" [off-list ref] wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jan 2014 11:32 -0700
"Justin Clift" [off-list ref] wrote:

<snip>

quoted

Out of curiosity, do you remember offhand what the legal
issues you ran into are?

Yes, of course, I do. GPL doesn't allow closed source in kernel.

Ahhh, got it. :)

Yeah, wanting to keep the driver code closed source would
definitely be a problem there. ;>

quoted

If it's useful, we could (nicely) ask Red Hat's Legal team
for their insight and general thoughts/advice if they have
the time (no idea if they do).

They're very good, and have lots of experience working
through GPL legal issues, figuring out practical
approaches/solutions.

?

I doubt it will help.

You could be right.  The only thing I can think of, is that
they might know of good ways for Cirque for become ok with
going open source for the USB touchpad drivers, instead of
keeping closed source.

  eg some way to make the benefits of going open source be
     greater than the benefits of keeping closed source

But, up to you.  Not going to push it if you're not really
interested. :)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

-- 
GlusterFS Project: http://www.gluster.org
Justin Clift [off-list ref]