Oleg Goldshmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wrote: > Gilad Ben-Yossef <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Again, I am no lawyer, but the "official" GNU/FSF standpoint as I > > understand is that the fact that module links against a GPLed work > > (the Linux kernel) means in is considered a "derived work" of the > > Linux kernel and therefor can only be published under the GPL. > > Let me get the technical terminology correct. Are the modules > considered "linked" against the kernel? Or are they "loaded" at > runtime and constitute - as Linus put it - "normal usage of the > kernel"? I must admit never delved into the details of this (though > I did build kernels numerous times). Is "linkage" defined as "running > ld(1) or equivalent (e.g. via a compiler front-end) on the module > and the kernel"? Then I's say they are not linked... However the > insmod(8) man page does say "link". I suppose this means that modules > are linked, indeed.
All those terms: "link", "load", "derived work", "normal usage", "module", etc. exist within the GPL and/or other agreements with GPL authors and must indeed be considered by programmers who include GPL code in their programs. In the case of the MOSIX module (as it was prior to MOSIX being GPLed), no GPL code was even #included, or copied in any other manner, and therefore there was nothing preventing us from releasing it in any manner we wished. There [was] nothing preventing our end-users who wished to combine the non-GPL MOSIX module with GPL code (eg. modified Linux) from doing so either, since the GPL only restricts "copying, distributing and modification" and the acts of binary-linking (whether static or dynamic) and running the combined software are neither of those three. Amnon Shiloh -- the HUJI MOSIX group. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
