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    From"David Schwartz" <>
    SubjectRE: GPL issues
    DateFri, 14 Apr 2006 04:39:56 -0700
    > An example could be helpful in clarifying the GPL license.
    >
    > Suppose I use the linux-vrf patch for the kernel that is freely
    > available and use the extended setsocket options such as SO_VRF in an
    > application, do I have to release my application under GPL since I am
    > using a facility in the kernel that a standard linux kernel does not
    > provide?
    
    	Almost definitely not. Here you have two works that provide two distinctly
    different functions and communicate across a well-defined boundary. In
    theory, the two works could have been developed completely independently, so
    one cannot be a derivative work of the other.
    	The thing you need to remember is that the API that userspace uses to
    communicate with the kernel is itself a work. In this case, it almost
    certainly is purely functional and contains no protectable, copyrightable
    content. Both the kernel changes and the user-space code take only from the
    API. They do not take from each other.
    
    	DS
    
    
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