Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?

Kendall Bennett
2003-12-05T19:14:13Z

Jesse Pollard <jesse@cats-chateau.net> wrote:

> It is if you are referring to the Kernel. Look at the include
> files. They are licened under GPL.
>
> Look at the include files for applications. They are licenced
> under LGPL.

Really? Have you looked at the include files for Linux? The standard C
include files that nearly every program uses will end up also *including*
Linux kernel header files in order to build programs for Linux. Not all
programs will end up including those files, but a very large portion
will.

If you don't believe me, do a grep under /usr/include/sys on your machine
for 'linux', and see how many of the header files include stuff from
/usr/include/linux. All the files under /usr/include/linux are part of
the kernel, so theoretically under the pure GPL, not LGPL.

Then again I say 'theoretically' because once again there is nary a
kernel header file in sight that actually *has* a GPL license header
attached! So who knows what license those files are *really* under.

Regards,

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

~ SciTech SNAP - The future of device driver technology! ~