[Celinux-dev] How to protect intellectual property while maximizing open source usage?

[Shawn Kwon]

Thank you very much for your comment.

> How to protect intellectual property while maximizing open source usage?
these are mostly defined already, search for Greg KH (novell, ex-suse,
ex-ibm) mails on this topic.

--> Could you please point me some URL?
I have seen his several comments but do not exactly
remember regarding intellectual property.

> 1. Should linux kernel module be released under GPL? (Simple question. J)
They must be GPL otherwise you'd break the rules. 

--> There used to be several debates on that. But many vendors still
release their kernel module under non-GPL yet. I am not saying
that it is okay or not but just talking about the current status.

I am not sure whether it is possible to make a consensus among several
copyright holders of linux kernel module interface routine. 
AFAIK, only the copyright holder can issue a lawsuit and such a lawsuit
is unlikely to happen. It can happen but I think the possibility is not
very high. There have been several vendors who release non-GPL module
but none of them has been challenged in the court yet. Again, I am not
saying that non-GPL kernel module is okay. 

> 2. If the kernel module should be GPL, then how can I differentiate the
> operating system-related part of my product?
I don't get what you mean here.
--> For example, I want to enhance linux kernel's scheduler,
but this is a key feature of my product. Then the vendor will naturally
try to find a way to not release this part as GPL or the competitor
can easily get the code.

> 3. How can I legally develop my application using GPL'd library with
keeping
> my application code proprietary?
Again, you can't.

--> Yes, that is the answer. And all the ambiguity comes from
the vague definition on 'derivative work' in the GPL I think.

HOWEVER, there are some ways to get around GPL. Basically GPL defines
its behaviour in scope of one process and linkage time. If you write a
IPC (Inter Process Comm.) around the library and this library itself
is GPL or LGPL, the other process may not be GPL. You can use corba,
dbus, dcop, tcp or other way to communicate two processes. Example:
You can use a non-GPL browser (ie: Internet Explorer) to access a GPL
web-server.

--> We cannot simply say that wrapper library and IPC can solve
the issue because it is quite subjective whether the two processes
are derivative works. Socket or pipe may be used for that also
but it is still unclear when we can say one program is/is not
a derivative work of the other program in terms of GPL.

Anyway, thank you very much for your above comments.