Re: spinlocks, the GPL, and binary-only modules

From: Rik van Riel (riel@conectiva.com.br)
Date: Tue Nov 19 2002 - 20:52:02 EST


On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> So, since spinlocks and semaphores are (a) inline and #included into
> your code, and (b) required for just about sane interoperation with Linux...
>
> does this mean that all binary-only modules that #include kernel code
> such as spinlocks are violating the GPL?

> But who knows if #include'd code constitutes a derived work :(

Only if the #included snippets of code are large enough to be
protected by copyright, which might be true of the stuff in
mm_inline.h and of some of the semaphore code, but probably
isn't true of the spinlock code.

Even if the code #included is large enough to be protected by
copyright I don't know if the code including it would be considered
a derived work. Many questions remaining...

regards,

Rik

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