Malicious Compliance

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Here's all the source code (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In 2000, I wrote a Linux device driver that "decrypted" the output of a certain device, and my company, which hosted open-source projects, agreed to host it.

The "encryption" was only a XOR, but that was enough for the maker of said device to sue my company under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 for hundreds of millions in damages.

The story got a lot of press back then because it highlighted how stupid the then-new DMCA was, and also because there was a David open-source enthusiasts vs. Goliath heartless corporation flavor to it.

Our lawyer decided to pick up the fight to generate free publicity for our fledgling company. For discovery, the maker of the device requested "a copy of any and all potentially infringing source code". They weren't specific and they didn't specify the medium.

So we printed the entire Linux kernel source code including my driver in 5-pt font and sent them the boxes of printouts. Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How different is the FreeBSD kernel from the Linux kernel?

Like in terms of interfaces, if I were to port a device driver, am I just changing some header files and some constants/enums/ifdefs?

Or there’s like entirely different function signatures / APIs?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would look at the source of LinuxKPI to get an idea of how different they are.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well of course I could go look at the source code. We had to write a hello world Linux module in college. Was just being lazy and thought some expert might give a quick synopsis.

Though based on your reply, I’m guessing they are more different than I imagined.