[PLUG] A bit confused about 2.6 kernel and X drivers

[Brian Beattie]

On Thu, 2004-06-03 at 19:55, AthlonRob wrote:
> On Thursday 03 June 2004 04:16 pm, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > AthlonRob <athlonrob at axpr.net> writes:
> > > Legally, they'd find themselves fighting a lot of lawsuites, I fear,
> > > if they opened their driver code up.
> >
> > So what?  They should be thinking about their customers first, from
> > there the revenue will follow.
> 
> The issue as it was explained on the LKML a while back, is this:
> 
> In our Patent-happy world, it is virtually impossible to create any computer 
> hardware that doesn't step on some patent somebody has somewhere, especially 
> if you're designing something as complex as a graphics card.  It simply isn't 
> feasible to make sure your hardware violates no patents out there already.
> 
> If they released the source code to their drivers, everybody would begin 
> inspecting it for evidence of violations.  Regardless of whether or not there 
> are any violations, they're going to be sued.  As the only people to win in a 
> lawsuite are the lawyers and consultants, that would cause nVidia to lose 
> money even if they won the suites.  Guess who will foot that bill?
> 
> We, the consumers, will foot that bill.
> 
> So, look at it from nVidia's point of view.  Right now, they aren't losing a 
> significant number of customers because of their closed-source driver model.  
> What happens if they open their drivers?  They get sued.  They have to raise 
> prices.  They lose more customers than they gain.  How does this make good 
> business sense?

Why is this not a problem for ATI?  I don't buy it for one second.

> 
> Rob
> 
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-- 
Brian Beattie            | Experienced kernel hacker/embedded systems
beattie at beattie-home.net | programmer, direct or contract, short or
www.beattie-home.net     | long term, available immediately.

"Honor isn't about making the right choices.
It's about dealing with the consequences." -- Midori Koto

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