There is already precedent set for loading non-GPL blobs into GPL binaries, and the FSF even has some information on what they believe to be the line for this c

There is already precedent set for loading non-GPL blobs into GPL binaries, and the FSF even has some information on what they believe to be the line for this case [0]. Now, mind you, this specific case does fall under what the FSF believes - so we start falling into the argument of what constitutes a derived work. Linus obviously believes it is possible to create kernel modules that aren't GPL'ed, and he has allowed nvidia, amd and many other vendors to create proprietary blobs without legal issues. We also see something similar with Illumos' KVM support, where they are loading the GPL'ed KVM module into their CDDL kernel. The argument is that KVM was not developed as "part" or dependent on Illumos, only minor changes had to be made to allow it to work there instead of on Linux, as such it is not a derived work of Illumos and can be used even though the GPL and CDDL are incompatible. The same case is being made here for ZFS, the OpenZFS code has been modified to work as a Linux kernel module but it is not a derived work of Linux as it is a standalone product that someone just so happened to port. Legal precedent on this is going to be very interesting to watch if someone decides to take this case to court. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#GPLAndPlugins http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#GPLAndPlugins