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what you're describing would make end-running the GPL absurdly easy. Vendors would just distribute vanilla Linux source code and in another file distribute thei
by sidewndr46 3y ago
what you're describing would make end-running the GPL absurdly easy. Vendors would just distribute vanilla Linux source code and in another file distribute their not-a-derivative patches under their own proprietary license.
Patches are obviously a derivative work. No one spontaneously describes deleting several lines of code & then replacing it with other lines of code.
- makeworld 3y agoMy understanding is that that would be legal. The problem for those companies is they can't build and distribute a Linux kernel that contains those patches, because then that is a derivative work. So in practice they have to release their changes under the GPL as it's not feasible to ask users to compile their own kernel with their custom patches.