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    SubjectRE: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?
    Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> wrote:

    > So you can run the kernel and create non-GPL'd programs while running it
    > to your hearts content. You can use it to control a nuclear submarine, and
    > that's totally outside the scope of the license (but if you do, please
    > note that the license does not imply any kind of warranty or similar).
    >
    > BUT YOU CAN NOT USE THE KERNEL HEADER FILES TO CREATE NON-GPL'D BINARIES.
    >
    > Comprende?

    Right, and by extension of the same argument you cannot use kernel
    headers to create non-GPL'ed binaries that run IN USER SPACE! Just
    because a program runs in user space does not mean that it is not a
    dervived work. There is nothing special about a user mode program
    compared to a module just because it uses Linux system calls. The same
    principles you apply to determine whether a module is a derived work also
    apply to user space programs, *ESPECIALLY* if you consider that the GPL
    kernel header files contains code (inline C or assembler) that probably
    gets linked either directly or indirectly (through the C runtime library)
    into *EVERY* Linux user mode program.

    This exact reasoning is what RedHat (aka Cygnus) has been using for years
    with the Cygwin toolkit for Windows. Although 99% of the code built with
    the GNU compilers and Cygwin includes the glibc runtime library that is
    LGPL, every program *must* include the C runtime library startup code or
    it cannot function. *That* code is pure GPL, and by extension any program
    using the Cygwin libraries is a derived work and must be GPL. If you
    don't like that, by a commercially licensed version of Cygwin from
    RedHat/Cygnus instead.

    This is also IMHO why so few people outside of Red Hat contribute to
    Cygwin, but that is a different issue ;-)

    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! ~

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