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

From: Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 09:19:15 EST

On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 10:17, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> Yeah, that's precisely the problem here: the binary-only module is
> distributed with included spinlock code, which *is* GPL.

That doesnt neccessarily make it a derived work. Suppose I publish a
book including a lawyer who says "Your honour I ...". That doesn't make
it a derivative of some previous work I read that used the same phrase.

Equally if I paraphase the entire court scene but use no identical words
it may be a derived work.

Stop thinking about this as a mathematical question. It isnt about the
union of sets of instructions.

Alan

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