Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030192AbWI0Lya (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:54:30 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030194AbWI0Lya (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:54:30 -0400 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:4268 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1030192AbWI0Lya (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:54:30 -0400 Subject: Re: GPLv3 Position Statement From: Alan Cox To: Jan Engelhardt Cc: Sergey Panov , James Bottomley , linux-kernel In-Reply-To: References: <1158941750.3445.31.camel@mulgrave.il.steeleye.com> <1159319508.16507.15.camel@sipan.sipan.org> <1159342569.2653.30.camel@sipan.sipan.org> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:19:00 +0100 Message-Id: <1159359540.11049.347.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.6.2 (2.6.2-1.fc5.5) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1237 Lines: 26 Ar Mer, 2006-09-27 am 10:58 +0200, ysgrifennodd Jan Engelhardt: > I think Linus once said that he does not consider the kernel to > become part of a combined work when an application uses the kernel. COPYING top of the kernel source tree. > I tend to agree, it's gray (unless Linus explicitly colorizes it) -- > IIRC the GPL allows a GPL and closed program to interact if they do so > using 'standard' interfaces, i.e. passing a file as argument, or > shell redirection, communicating over a pipe or a socket, etc. > But OTOH, linking code makes it a combined work. No. The definition of a derivative work is a legal one and not a technical one. Take a look at the history of the objective C compiler front end for gcc. It is possible that linked code is not derivative or pipe using code is derivative - consider for example RPC. Simply making a linux device driver make the same function calls to the kernel by RPC messages over a pipe type device would not change its status. Alan - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/