Don Becker had the advantage of working for NASA, a.k.a. the federal government, where everything is automatically public domain. Even classified information developed by the U.S. government isn't copyrighted, it just isn't available (to me, and probably not to you). We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Becker as a true public servant.

That's an interesting point, and one of which I'm well aware.

It wasn't the point being raised, however, which addressed knowledge requirements of writing network interface drivers.

Network driver history!

https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/tux/net/donald-becker/

Oh wow... thats a blast from the past.. Wonder what he's up to?

/me runs off to google