Re: [linux-audio-dev] Still I cannot understand why...

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Still I cannot understand why...
From: D. Stimits (stimits_AT_idcomm.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 00:40:56 EET


dave willis wrote:
>
> On Sun, 16 Dec 2001, Jussi Laako wrote:
>
> > Specifications of OSS are open so you or anyone else is free to write
> > OSS drivers.
> >
> > Some drivers can't be opensource because some hw manufacturers require
> > NDA's for specs.
>
> this makes no sense. the driver for my card is an additional $45
> (ice1712) with oss, and it has a nasty bug on init, whereas alsa is free,
> open-source, and works great (and better than oss).

I think he is just saying that it isn't possible to build an open source
driver for all hardware, since one must pay for hardware specs or
reverse engineer in some cases. And if you pay for specs, even if you
use ALSA, you could not ship source due to NDA. But then there is the
corollary, that perhaps even if the NDA prevents shipping source, the
company could still use an ALSA interface (provided it is done such that
licensing does not force disclosure...dynamic linking tends to solve
this legal problem, many companies don't know the difference between
static/dynamic linking, nor what really constitutes derived works, so
they assume they cannot release under ALSA).

D. Stimits, stimits_AT_idcomm.com

>
> -dave
> --
> perl -e'@email=split(//,".tenmhd\@nosbud");foreach$letter(@email){$
> email=$letter.$email;}$email=~s/(m|net\.)/a\1\1/g;print"$email\n";'


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