Ben Pfaff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Russ Allbery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> Because the Linux kernel adds an additional clause, in the form of a >> statement of the author's interpretation of the license, saying that >> such modules are okay. > Are you saying that the NVIDIA driver for Linux is a user program, not a > kernel module? (I do not know for sure because I have never had cause > to download or install it.) Here is the clarification included in the > COPYING file distributed with the Linux kernel. It does not talk about > kernel modules at all, only about system calls made by user programs. > 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". Oh, hm. Good point. I'm so used to Linus talking about the reasons behind his exception for modules that I had forgotten that they weren't mentioned in his exception. Sorry about the misleading comment. One can extend the above argument by way of observing that Linux has a clear interface layer that could be treated the same as the system call layer, but Linus doesn't explicitly say that, and the same could be said of just about any shared library. Probably the more persuasive argument, which *also* applies to binaries, is that Debian is not doing the mixing of the NVidia kernel module and the kernel; the user is doing this when running insmod. The user can create works that are not redistributable without violating the GPL; the GPL does not limit what you do with the pile of code that you have on hand as long as you don't give it to someone else. However, I must say that it's hard to see the distinction between distributing a separate kernel binary and a kernel module and claiming the user is doing the combining and distributing a separate compiled binary and a library and claiming the same thing. (A particularly good edge case, which has some serious practical effects in Debian, is whether one needs to care, as an application author, about the licenses on system nsswitch and PAM modules that are dyanmically loaded into the same executable based on a configuration controlled by the user.) -- Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]