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To: Allen Benn who wrote (9712)5/25/2001 1:07:09 PM
From: Bill Fischofer  Read Replies (1) of 10309
 
Re: GPL constraints

First, please see linux.org for the actual text of the GPL. It's very plain English and doesn't require a lawyer to understand. Note particularly these sections:

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). ...

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

I think these paragraphs make it quite clear that GPL does not apply to any application written to run on a Linux kernel regardless of how that application is distributed. This simply means that you cannot modify the kernel without coming under the scope of the GPL. If due to the nature of the application it cannot be designed to run purely as an application then to protect one's IP all that is necessary is to split the application into two parts: a set of kernel modifications which are subject to GPL and a separate stand-alone application which is not. Generally this would be done by inserting "hooks" into the kernel. The hooks themselves would fall under the GPL but an application which made use of those hooks would not since those hooks are now just part of the extended Linux API.
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