On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Job Vranish
This seems really confusing.
It would imply that if I write a library that is designed to talk to some part of the linux kernel API (which is GPL'd) then I'd have to release my library under the GPL. And anything that used my libraries API would need to be GPL'd too, etc... Which would mean that everything run in linux would need to be GPL'd, which is just silly.
Linux license specifically single that case out of the license restrictions. From the COPYING file in linux's source: 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". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated.