Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

Helge Hafting
2005-12-07T12:36:19Z

Benjamin LaHaise wrote:

>On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 11:18:15PM -0500, Michael Poole wrote:
>
>
>>Besides, if the act of linking is what makes the derivative work,
>>there is no problem: The GPL allows a user to make any modifications
>>or combinations or derivatives whatsoever, and only imposes
>>requirements when the result is distributed. The linking of the two
>>works occurs only on the end user's machine.
>>
>>
>
>But if it's a module, it's probably been compiled against kernel headers.
>Last time I checked, header files were covered by the GPL unless explicitly
>placed under a more permissive license. How do you use something like
>spinlocks without compiling in GPL code to a module?
>
>
They can always claim that reverse engineering works both ways.
Linux spinlocks can be reverse engineered, or they can search
the mailing list archives for detailed explanations. :-/

Helge Hafting