To continue the OpenAFS example though, while OpenAFS.ko itself considered as a standalone item might well be not a derivative work, that doesn't mean that you

To continue the OpenAFS example though, while OpenAFS.ko itself considered as a standalone item might well be not a derivative work, that doesn't mean that you if distributed a work comprising the Linux kernel combined with OpenAFS that that combined work might not be a derivative (of both the Linux kernel and OpenAFS). In the same way that if I took some pictures I drew back in 1960 and used them to illustrate a copy of Harry Potter, I've created a work that's a derivative of both my original picture collection and Rowling's work.