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Most crimes don't end up in courts. Doubly so when one side is a corporation with an ungodly amount of money, and the other side is a group of difficult to orga
by TheDong 3y ago
Most crimes don't end up in courts. Doubly so when one side is a corporation with an ungodly amount of money, and the other side is a group of difficult to organize nerds who would struggle to show real damages.
Things not showing up in courts proves basically nothing, and if you think it does, well, I'd be happy to sell you a lawyer who will charge you $200k to win a case over the course of 3 years netting you a judgement of $25k at the end.
Regardless of the legal aspect though, nvidia's clearly in the moral wrong. The kernel ships with a license that tries to protect user's freedom to modify its source code, and the source code for derived works. nvidia is acting counter to that license, and counter to its user's freedom.
- tsimionescu 3y agoGiven that at least some other OSs see drivers as 3rd party programs and not derived works of the kernel, I don't see why we should consider Nvidia morally in the wrong. I find it much more likely that they are legally in the wrong, though.
- vilunov 3y agoLinux being a monolithic kernel and drivers being a derivative work is an important design choice, which arguably is an important reason Linux became so popular now, as it forces everyone to contribute to the common pool, if they wish to use others' work. One group deciding that they are an exception is morally wrong in my eyes, because it undermines that idea.
- justin66 3y ago> Most crimes don't end up in courts. It would lend credibility to your arguments if you understood the difference between criminal and civil actions.