Message-ID: <3BCEF26E.12D69882@redhat.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 16:17:02 +0100
From: Arjan van de Ven <arjanv@redhat.com>
Reply-To: arjanv@redhat.com
Organization: Red Hat, Inc
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Roy Murphy <murphy@panix.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: MODULE_LICENSE and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
In-Reply-To: <3bceefa6.3cf6.0@panix.com>
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Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org


> Exported interfaces are "methods of operation" in the sense of US
> Copyright Law.  Copyright Law affords no protection to "methods of
> operation".  The GPL, which gains its strength from Copyright Law, also
> has no rights in this area.  If a GPLed module does not want other code
> using its interfaces, they should not be exported.

I think you're missing one thing: binary only modules are only allowed
because of an exception license grant Linus made for functions that are
marked EXPORT_SYMBOL(). EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() just says "not part of this 
exception grant"....
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