Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:56:38 -0800
From: Chris Wedgwood <cw@f00f.org>
To: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@wolfmountaingroup.com>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>, Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com>,
       legal@lists.gnumonks.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
       LKML Kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
       "Robert W. Fuller" <garbageout@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: blatant GPL violation of ext2 and reiserfs filesystem drivers
Message-ID: <20051223025638.GA31381@taniwha.stupidest.org>
References: <43AACF77.9020206@sbcglobal.net> <496FC071-3999-4E23-B1A2-1503DCAB65C0@mac.com> <1135283241.12761.19.camel@localhost.localdomain> <43AB32C1.1080101@wolfmountaingroup.com>
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On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 04:12:01PM -0700, Jeff V. Merkey wrote:

> >Now the real question: If one were to have an operating system, and
> >set up a layer that simulated the API of Linux, such that Linux
> >binary modules could be loaded, is _that_ a violation of the GPL?

> No , it is not.  It's called "reverse engineering".

That's entirely debatable and I would recommend the original poster
seek legal advice on this as there are many people who will claim
loading GPLd modules is paramount to linking and therefore this is a
violation.
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