http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=56527
--- Comment #1 from Andy Lutomirski <luto at mit dot edu> 2013-03-05 00:37:20 UTC --- In fact, without an improvement like this, protected visibility is unusable on objects -- anything linking against a protected object will generate a copy relocation. The fact that the resulting binary is even loadable is IMO a bug (whether in binutils for generating it or in glibc for loading it is debatable.)