Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?

Russell King
2003-12-05T10:55:34Z

On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 01:09:00PM +1300, Oliver Hunt wrote:
> What (i think) linus is saying is that he, as the owner of the
> copyright,

Unfortunately, this statement isn't entirely correct.

Linus owns the copyright on parts of the kernel written by Linus, just
the same as I own copyright on the parts of the kernel written by me,
Red Hat own copyright on parts of the kernel written by their employees,
and IBM own copyright on parts of the kernel written by their employees.
etc.

No one person owns the overall copyright on the complete kernel.

This, in turn, means that no one person can change the terms and
conditions of the license under which the overall kernel is
distributed.

IANAL.

--
Russell King
Linux kernel 2.6 ARM Linux - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
maintainer of: 2.6 PCMCIA - http://pcmcia.arm.linux.org.uk/
2.6 Serial core