Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:49:03 +0000 | From | Alexander Fisher <> | Subject | Would I be violating the GPL? |
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Hello.
A supplier of a PCI mezzanine digital IO card has provided a linux 2.4 driver as source code. They have provided this code source with a license stating I won't redistribute it in anyway. My concern is that if I build this code into a module, I won't be able to distribute it to customers without violating either the GPL (by not distributing the source code), or the proprietary source code license as currently imposed by the supplier. From what I have read, this concern is only valid if the binary module is considered to be a 'derived work' of the kernel. The module source directly includes the following kernel headers :
#include <linux/kernel.h> #include <linux/types.h> #include <linux/fs.h> #include <linux/errno.h> #include <linux/wrapper.h> #include <linux/module.h> #include <linux/iobuf.h> #include <linux/highmem.h> #include <asm/uaccess.h> #include <linux/mm.h> #include <asm/unistd.h>
Does this make the compiled module a derived work? Are the 'static inlines' from the headers substantial enough?
I really want to have a clear understanding of the issues before contacting the supplier. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Kind regards, Alex - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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