rtl-sdr licensing question

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Sylvain Munaut 246tnt at gmail.com
Fri Feb 28 22:21:07 UTC 2014


Hi,

> I only have one small question, which is the exact treatment of auto-install
> mechanisms.  I was hoping to use a auto-downloader to make the installation
> process easier.  Do you consider it problematic if I use the auto-downloader
> to grab the SDRIO installer and execute it (not individual drivers, but
> rather the installer as a whole)?

Yes, it's a problem.


> It seems strange to me that there should
> be a difference between a user manually clicking a download link and running
> a program versus the program downloading automatically, but I understand
> that this is a gray area.

If the process was automatic, there would effectively be no difference
between shipping it with it directly and so this is clearly a
circumvention mechanism by which you try to "work around" the GPL to
achieve the same result as distributing both component as a whole.


The entire point of the GPL is to give "an edge" / "an advantage" to
software that are also GPL. Hence forcing the application to be less
practical, more of a burden to the user if it's not GPL is a
_design_goal_ ...


Cheers,

    Sylvain




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