Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 04:03:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Tani Hosokawa <unknown@riverstyx.net> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no>, David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>, David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net>, Morten Seeberg <morten@seeberg.dk>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SGI Donated Journalised FS Source to Linux Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9906150401120.23539-100000@avarice.riverstyx.net> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.56.19990614082805.044b4380@localhost>
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On Mon, 14 Jun 1999, Brett Glass wrote: > At 12:19 PM 6/14/99 +0200, Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote: > > >No. Read the GPL, and read what RMS writes about it. Plugins and > >loadable modules are derivative work, and must be under GPL. > > This is Stallman's attitude -- primarily because he crafted the GPL > out of spite and malice toward commercial developers. > > However, I believe that the license under which Linux is published > is not EXACTLY the GPL. It contains an exception for loadable kernel > modules (or LKMs). > > Of course, advocates of the GPL often take advantage of its size > and confusing language to spread FUD about it. They represent it as "the" > open source license and do not mention the exception for LKMs in Linux. > They may hornswoggle SGI into releasing its code under the GPL when in > fact this is not necessary. I would not put it past Stallman to do this; > he seems to believe that the end justifies the means. " NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it." I don't know if LKM's use kernel services by normal system calls. I'm guessing they probably do, since they'll just tie into the VFS layer, which is just a set of hooks designed for plunking in filesystems. --- tani hosokawa river styx internet To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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