Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750838AbWLNTmj (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:42:39 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750853AbWLNTmj (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:42:39 -0500 Received: from an-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.132.243]:5499 "EHLO an-out-0708.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750838AbWLNTmi (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:42:38 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=kGMgMGl+JxbQya/hjJMMxNEIw4omW2qNni+lg0+PqH6IkuxS601v/ydJjz1EydAV+dbzXbygD7RkBWkeS7gupEPXD4pJXmgVpKYvzFs5PTP2AjwIx9pStanpvkcB0wRqOC7TTjRWDAe5lvClawLuMM+hkFvgszqC5fQMnfXyPtQ= Message-ID: <7b69d1470612141142k63cc7d11l89c0a7f26acc631a@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:42:35 -0600 From: "Scott Preece" To: "Chris Wedgwood" Subject: Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19] Cc: "Eric Sandeen" , "Christoph Hellwig" , "Linus Torvalds" , "Jeff Garzik" , "Greg KH" , "Jonathan Corbet" , "Andrew Morton" , "Martin Bligh" , "Michael K. Edwards" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20061214183956.GA13692@tuatara.stupidest.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20061214003246.GA12162@suse.de> <20061214005532.GA12790@suse.de> <458171C1.3070400@garzik.org> <20061214170841.GA11196@tuatara.stupidest.org> <20061214173827.GC3452@infradead.org> <20061214175253.GB12498@tuatara.stupidest.org> <458194B8.1090309@sandeen.net> <20061214183956.GA13692@tuatara.stupidest.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1681 Lines: 39 On 12/14/06, Chris Wedgwood wrote: > On Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 12:15:20PM -0600, Eric Sandeen wrote: > > > Please don't use that name, it strikes me as much more confusing > > than EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL, even though I agree that _GPL doesn't quite > > convey what it means, either. > > Calling internal symbols _INTERNAL is confusing? I think it's the combination of "INTERNAL" and "EXPORT" that seems contradictory - "If it's internal, why are you exporting it?" I think "EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_ONLY" or "...ONLY UNDER_GPL" would make the meaning clearer, but I don't really think the gain is worth the pain. Anybody using kernel interfaces ought to be able to figure it out. > > But those symbols aren't, they're about internal interfaces that might > change. Folks who think this is likely to make a difference in court might want to look at for a litany of court cases that have rejected infringement claims where a much sterner effort had been made to hide or block use of interfaces. The article claims that courts have increasingly found that interfacing your code to an existing work is not infringement, regardless of what you have to work around to do it. Of course, that's one author's reading of the case law and I'm sure there are others who disagree, but it's something you'd want to keep in mind in calculating the expected value of a suit... scott - 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/