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I believe there may be some reasons why you may want proprietary (or incompatibly licensed) kernel modules. In such cases, as long as you didn't take code from

I believe there may be some reasons why you may want proprietary (or incompatibly licensed) kernel modules. In such cases, as long as you didn't take code from the Kernel, I believe it shouldn't be considered a derivative work. I believe my opinion is quite unpopular and not share within the FOSS community. I honestly speaking prefer BSD or MIT for the linking purposes. I believe forbidding linking makes it too restrictive for some use cases. Particularly striking to me is this sentence: "It is rather ironic that in some ways, one has more freedom in how one licences a kernel driver for Windows than the freedom one supposedly has in writing a kernel module for Linux. " It makes me believe there's something wrong in the current state of things.

RustyRussell 5y ago
Sure, but when I was a kernel dev I considered it a reasonable line: it's not that hard to create your own kernel if you want a different licence. It was one reason I worked on the kernel: that all your software should be hackable. I probably would have found something else to do if the licence were different.
fao_ 5y ago
> I believe it shouldn't be considered a derivative work Isn't the point of the majority of this document, that nobody, not individual rightsholders, nor the FSF, not even the Linux Kernel Project, has the legal authority or knowledge to interpret the LGPLv2. That fundamentally the LGPLv2 is a legal document and therefore the only people able to create an interpretation of this document are lawyers, and even then, their interpretation is subject to how a judge might decide in a court of law? So therefore, your beliefs, my beliefs, anyone's beliefs on this are mere conjecture or supposition, and can be considered essentially worthless. Ultimately, how it plays out depends on legal precedence, jurisdiction, judge, hell- the weather on the day of the trial and the specific circumstances in which it is brought up in the court system. Ergo, isn't it more than a little presumptuous to debate on this matter? To put forth your opinion and opine it as what you believe, and therefore as some degree of possibility or fact, despite there being essentially no reference point unless a lawyer was actually contacted and was able to provide an interpretation?
- ladyanita22 5y ago
  I believe this reply is presuntous. Edit: Also, this is about the GPL2, not the LGPL.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  You literally could say that about anything.

RustyRussell 5y ago

Sure, but when I was a kernel dev I considered it a reasonable line: it's not that hard to create your own kernel if you want a different licence. It was one reason I worked on the kernel: that all your software should be hackable. I probably would have found something else to do if the licence were different.

fao_ 5y ago

> I believe it shouldn't be considered a derivative work Isn't the point of the majority of this document, that nobody, not individual rightsholders, nor the FSF, not even the Linux Kernel Project, has the legal authority or knowledge to interpret the LGPLv2. That fundamentally the LGPLv2 is a legal document and therefore the only people able to create an interpretation of this document are lawyers, and even then, their interpretation is subject to how a judge might decide in a court of law? So therefore, your beliefs, my beliefs, anyone's beliefs on this are mere conjecture or supposition, and can be considered essentially worthless. Ultimately, how it plays out depends on legal precedence, jurisdiction, judge, hell- the weather on the day of the trial and the specific circumstances in which it is brought up in the court system. Ergo, isn't it more than a little presumptuous to debate on this matter? To put forth your opinion and opine it as what you believe, and therefore as some degree of possibility or fact, despite there being essentially no reference point unless a lawyer was actually contacted and was able to provide an interpretation?

ladyanita22 5y ago
I believe this reply is presuntous. Edit: Also, this is about the GPL2, not the LGPL.
ipaddr 5y ago
You literally could say that about anything.