On 08/18/2015 09:54 PM, Rich Freeman wrote: > > I think the kernel devs would be hard-pressed to mount some kind of > GPL infringement lawsuit. In general US courts have tended to block > attempts to use copyright/trademark/patents/etc simply to prevent > interoperability, and that is basically what this is.
The entire point of the GPL is to "prevent interoperability" with people who want to steal your work and take away its users' freedoms. > And would we really want it any other way? How is this not like > Brother sticking chips in their ink cartridges containing copyrighted > code, or the chip in lightning cables? They are similar. The original GPL was a legal hack: to take copyright and use it in a novel way, granting freedoms rather than restricting them. Which coincidentally is how your example differs from EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL =)