What next?

[bridgman]

First of all I dont think that nVidia could take your code and re-implement it. I know for a fact that is a GPL violation. The GPL specifically states that if they use your code they they need to abide the GPL... Period..... It really is that simple.

Yep, if the code is used verbatim then the user would need to abide by the terms of the GPL. That's not what we are talking about here -- we are talking about the re-implementation of ideas in new code. Neither copyright nor GPL protect against that, only software patents (or secrecy ) can do so.

Strictly speaking it is copyright which protects the code and GPL defines the terms under which the authors of that code allow others to use it. If you use GPL-licensed code without obeying the GPL terms you are violating copyright unless the authors have given you permission through an alternate licensing scheme.

Check this site out... gpl-violations.org The information here is somewhat limited, but you can go through the list of GPL enforcements, and time after time you find that it protects against exactly the situation you just described The problem is that you make it sound like it is some kind of bad thing.

Harald Welte's project, right ? I think you will find that gpl-violations.org is going after something different - verbatim use of GPL-licensed code (eg. the Linux kernel) without abiding by the terms of the GPL for that code.

The truth is that it is not. In the end you'll be able to benefit from the work that every other GPU company is making in the free software community. Sure they will benefit from your work too, but --ONLY-- if they too adopt the GPL... In which case you'll win due to superior hardware.

If all of our major competitors in the workstation market were providing their commercial workstation drivers under a free software license I might agree with you. However, you are assuming that anyone adopting the *ideas* from our GPL-licensed code would be forced to release their code under GPL, but that is not the case.