Sobre drivers libres y especificaciones

De Alan Cox, sobre eso de que los drivers propietarios tienen IP patentada de otras compañias y que por eso han de mantenerse propietarios:

"That IP story is for the most part not even credible. If they were worried about "software IP" they would release hardware docs and let us get on with writing drivers that may well not be as cool as theirs but would work. If they had real IPR in their hardware then they would hold patents on it and would be able to take action against (or license it) to anyone else making hardware. That would apply even outside the USA where software patents are generally not valid."