Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 3 Dec 2003 16:23:33 -0800 (PST) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause? |
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On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > So being a module is not a sign of not being a derived work. It's just > one sign that _maybe_ it might have other arguments for why it isn't > derived.
Side note: historically, the Linux kernel module interfaces were really quite weak, and only exported a few tens of entry-points, and really mostly effectively only allowed character and block device drivers with standard interfaces, and loadable filesystems.
So historically, the fact that you could load a module using nothing but these standard interfaces tended to be a much stronger argument for not being very tightly coupled with the kernel.
That has changed, and the kernel module interfaces we have today are MUCH more extensive than they were back in '95 or so. These days modules are used for pretty much everything, including stuff that is very much "internal kernel" stuff and as a result the kind of historic "implied barrier" part of modules really has weakened, and as a result there is not avery strong argument for being an independent work from just the fact that you're a module.
Similarly, historically there was a much stronger argument for things like AFS and some of the binary drivers (long forgotten now) for having been developed totally independently of Linux: they literally were developed before Linux even existed, by people who had zero knowledge of Linux. That tends to strengthen the argument that they clearly aren't derived.
In contrast, these days it would be hard to argue that a new driver or filesystem was developed without any thought of Linux. I think the NVidia people can probably reasonably honestly say that the code they ported had _no_ Linux origin. But quite frankly, I'd be less inclined to believe that for some other projects out there..
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