Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1946420AbXBQGdC (ORCPT ); Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:33:02 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1946421AbXBQGdC (ORCPT ); Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:33:02 -0500 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:32969 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1946420AbXBQGdA (ORCPT ); Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:33:00 -0500 To: davids@webmaster.com Cc: "Linux-Kernel\@Vger. Kernel. Org" Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers References: From: Alexandre Oliva Organization: Red Hat OS Tools Group Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:32:15 -0200 In-Reply-To: (David Schwartz's message of "Fri\, 16 Feb 2007 18\:59\:29 -0800") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.93 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1716 Lines: 38 On Feb 17, 2007, "David Schwartz" wrote: >> Linking with kernel exported symbols in a kernel module is by many >> people considered creating a work derived from the kernel. > That's simply unreasonable. It is the most clear settled law that only a > creative process can create a work for copyright purposes. Linking is an > automated process, not a creative process. It cannot create a work at all, > much less a derivative work. Per this principle, it would seem that only source code and hand-crafted object code would be governed by copyright, since compilation is also an automated process. FWIW, http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/128#1 touches a very similar issue, also covered in the upcoming release of the video of the FSFLA session in the 5th GPLv3 conference. > If you have two works, A and B, and neither is a derivative work of the > other, linking them together cannot change the status of A or B. IANAL, but I understand this is correct. However, the output is probably a derivative work of both. Also, it's the fact that A needs to be linked with B, or vice-versa, that's a clue that A is likely to be a derived work from B, or vice-versa, even before they're linked together. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org} - 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/