Re: Would I be violating the GPL?

[Horst von Brand]

Rob Landley <rob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Wednesday 02 November 2005 16:21, linux@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Amongst the various arguments here for declaring a binary kernel
> > module a drived work based on including kernel headers, please
> > take a step back and remember that what's sauce for the goose is
> > sauce for the gander.
> 
> I think we've noticed the past few years of foaming looney attacks from SCO, 
> yes.  And Microsoft's own attempts to license its header files, and such.

[...]

> > Do I want 
> > them to claim proprietary rights in the source code because it refers
> > to symbols defined in their headers?

> Are those symbols documented?  Or did they have to deeply study a
> copyrighted work in that claims rights over derived works in order to
> find out about those symbols in the first place?

To /study/ a copyrighted work to find out how it works and then write code
against what you learned, you are /not/ copying anything. Sure, the
original code's license might forbid such activities, but in Linux' case it
certainly doesn't.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: +56 32 654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria              +56 32 654239
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile                Fax:  +56 32 797513
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