Messages in this thread | | | From | "Kendall Bennett" <> | Date | Fri, 05 Dec 2003 10:44:02 -0800 | Subject | RE: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause? |
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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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