There have been extensive discussions on loadable modules and licensing
w/r/t the GPLv2 in the linux kernel. nVidia, amongst others, pushed hard
to allow for non-GPL-compatible licensed code to be allowed as a Linux
kernel module. However, the kernel developers' consensus seems to have
come down against modifying the current kernel GPL license to allow for
non-GPL'd loadable modules.
For an example of the type of exception required to explicitly allow
this type of behavior, check out the GNU Classpath project's license:
http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html
This is similar to the LGPL license.
The issue of non-GPL'd loadable modules is still a very active
discussion, so I'm sure the last word hasn't been decided. As pointed
out, though, the ZFS code is CDDL, which is incompatible with the GPL.
The FUSE project is using a similar approach to nVidia, using a piece of
"shim" GPL'd code as a loadable module providing a stable kernel API to
call from userland applications, which can carry any license desired.
-Erik
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