I know the situation of the Linux kernel. The discussion hinges on what is a "derived work". Kernel modules are very interlinked with the kernel, particularly s

I know the situation of the Linux kernel. The discussion hinges on what is a "derived work". Kernel modules are very interlinked with the kernel, particularly since there are no stable APIs inside the kernel. It seems strange that just linking to a GPL library that defined an API makes you a derived work. But that is the FSF position: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Readline#Choice_of_the_GPL_as_GNU_Readline's_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Readline#Choice_of_the_GPL... This is why I always do libs as LGPL but it seems strange to me that it's even needed. If I've defined a proper opaque API, to be consumed by external code I know nothing about, it's strange to then argue that library callers are derived works and LGPL is explicitly needed.