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

From: Ross Vandegrift (ross@willow.seitz.com)
Date: Tue Nov 19 2002 - 23:26:24 EST

On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 12:59:26AM -0200, Rik van Riel wrote:
> You can copyright songs, but not individual musical notes.
>
> Likewise, snippets of code aren't copyrightable if they're below
> a certain "triviality size".

I don't pretend to be current on all the issues involved, but I've
always been under the impression that Linus has insisted that
binary-only drivers aren't derived works, with respect to the GPL.

If someone is worried they are, make all future headers state it
explicitly:

"Including this header in a Linux kernel module shall not be construed
to constitute a derived work." 

-- 
Ross Vandegrift
ross@willow.seitz.com

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