RE: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?

Kendall Bennett
2003-12-10T19:47:24Z

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> wrote:

> In fact, a user program written in 1991 is actually still likely
> to run, if it doesn't do a lot of special things. So user programs
> really are a hell of a lot more insulated than kernel modules,
> which have been known to break weekly.

IMHO (and IANAL of course), it seems a bit tenuous to me the argument
that just because you deliberating break compatibility at the module
level on a regular basis, that they are automatically derived works.
Clearly the module interfaces could be stabilised and published, and if
you consider the instance of a single kernel version in time, that module
ABI *is* published and *is* stable *for that version*. Just because you
make an active effort to change things and actively *not* document the
ABI other than in the source code across kernel versions, doesn't
automatically make a module a derived work.

IMHO anyway.

Regards,

---
Kendall Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
SciTech Software, Inc.
Phone: (530) 894 8400
http://www.scitechsoft.com

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