GPLv3 & additional permissions/restrictions

GPLv3 & additional permissions/restrictions

Posted Sep 26, 2006 12:21 UTC (Tue) by robilad (guest, #27163)
In reply to: GPLv3 & additional permissions/restrictions by robilad
Parent article: Some GPLv3 clarifications from the FSF

I meant the text

NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel
services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use
of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".

on top of GPLv2 in the file COPYING in the Linus kernel. I think it serves to clarify the licensing status of the kernel regarding works using it by normal means through an addition to the GPL.

I would argue that such a permission in the kernel has not led to dire consequences that balkanisation predicts. I am unaware of any Linux forks without such an addition to the GPL.

I would argue that's for a simple reason: removing freedoms that have been granted before by yourself and other generous contributors to the kernel would only leads to a less useful code base, and serve to shut out existing stake holders. As such, the forked code base would be less useful than the existing project, so no such forks would be as successful.

I'd furthermore argue that a similar argument would hold for any tightening of licensing conditions by removing additional permissions from GPLv2/v3 licensed code.

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