Sorry for reopening this. Gilad Ben-Yossef wrote: > There is no need for this. Kernel module communicate with user space > applications (open or otherwise) via the system call interface (IOCTL, > mmap, open...). > > Linus has made is specifically clear, in comment placed in the Linux > kernel source COPYING file, that program making use of the kernel > function via standart system call interface are NOT derived work. The comment says this: > NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel > services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use > of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". The question is whether "custom communication via ioctl" would fall under "normal system calls". I'd at least suggest that the question is not clear cut. For example, I do believe that a lot of the reliance on this is due to the belief by kernel developers that a user-space export of the kernel functions would do much good for performance reasons. While this may or may not be the case, I do believe that a lot of people WILL, in fact, be angry if this route is abused.
Which brings us to: > So much as Linus can speak for the entire gang of kernel copyright > holders (and probably even if not because of estopel) Actually, estoppel, while indeed not requiring discussion in court (contrary to my previous doubt), is still no method for you to make claims on my behalf. This is not exactly so, because people who contributed code to the kernel usually did this after the above statement was made, and so will have a bit of a hard time ignoring the estoppel binding. This does not, however, apply to person A contributing B's GPLed code. I have no info how frequently that happens. Shachar -- Shachar Shemesh Lingnu Open Source Consulting ltd. Have you backed up today's work? http://www.lingnu.com/backup.html ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
