I am not a lawyer. Kernel modules don't just access the public API of Linux and are fairly tightly bound to the Kernel. It seems to be the common understandin

I am not a lawyer. Kernel modules don't just access the public API of Linux and are fairly tightly bound to the Kernel. It seems to be the common understanding that they generally do constitute derived works. Certainly shipping them with a kernel is likely to be considered as such. Having said that see my other comment which I think explains how the GPL isn't viral and also that provided you don't distribute the derived work you are not obligated to distribute the source.