From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261985AbTEFWJE (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 May 2003 18:09:04 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262018AbTEFWJE (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 May 2003 18:09:04 -0400 Received: from mail.webmaster.com ([216.152.64.131]:40339 "EHLO shell.webmaster.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261985AbTEFWJB (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 May 2003 18:09:01 -0400 From: "David Schwartz" To: "Jamie Lokier" , "Eric W. Biederman" Cc: Subject: RE: Using GPL'd Linux drivers with non-GPL, binary-only kernel Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 15:21:35 -0700 Message-ID: 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 IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <20030506215552.GA6284@mail.jlokier.co.uk> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Importance: Normal Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > If you build a kernel to run Linux drivers that seems to scream > derivative work to me. Then WINE is a derivative work of Windows. Then any product designed to use AA batteries is a derivative work of the AA battery design. If you want to say that if you design X to be compatible with Y, then X is a derivative work of Y, you can do it. But that's not the kind of world I want to live in. It's not the world the GPL talks about: The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. You would pretty much have to argue that these were derivative works not of the kernel or of Windows itself, but of the APIs. In other words, Windows is a derivative work of the Windows API, as is WINE. Linux is a derivative work of the Linux kernel API, as is any module that uses this API. The only problem with this argument is that it results in the type of world you don't want to live in. You are not suppose to be able to use copyright to prohibit compatability. DS