From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264321AbTLERf7 (ORCPT ); Fri, 5 Dec 2003 12:35:59 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264320AbTLERf7 (ORCPT ); Fri, 5 Dec 2003 12:35:59 -0500 Received: from sj-iport-2-in.cisco.com ([171.71.176.71]:11035 "EHLO sj-iport-2.cisco.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264321AbTLERf5 (ORCPT ); Fri, 5 Dec 2003 12:35:57 -0500 Reply-To: From: "Hua Zhong" To: "'Ryan Anderson'" , Subject: RE: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause? Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 09:35:52 -0800 Organization: Cisco Systems Message-ID: <001401c3bb56$3b2fdd40$ca41cb3f@amer.cisco.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4024 In-Reply-To: <20031205140304.GF17870@michonline.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4927.1200 Importance: Normal Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > So far, I don't see any reason why a module that uses an > inline function provided via a kernel header could be distributed in binary > format without being a "derived work" and thus bound by the GPL. Yeah, the same reason that XFS, NUMA, etc are derived works from Unix since they must include Unix header files. What, maybe there are no inline functions there? No problem. SCO could make stuff like spinlocks inline. And suddenly you are derived works now. I just don't see how this actually works as you said.