As I understand it, Google is using the header files only to extract "structure declarations, constants, etc." -- i.e. to get the interface right, not to link t

As I understand it, Google is using the header files only to extract "structure declarations, constants, etc." -- i.e. to get the interface right, not to link to kernel source. The question is whether or not this is a copyright violation... If not, then the GPL has no power. Note that it's possible to use a copyrighted source to reverse-engineer an interface and not have it be a copyright violation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design#Case_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design#Case_law I'm hoping this is a lot of fuss over nothing, as there will no doubt be cases in the future where people want to create open-source drop-in replacements for proprietary systems, and if it is ruled that extracting information from header files makes a derivative work, it will be very difficult for them to get the interface right.