Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet) [LWN.net]

Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Nov 14, 2007 10:31 UTC (Wed) by tyhik (subscriber, #14747)
In reply to: Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet) by i3839
Parent article: Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

"A closed driver that does everything itself and only uses the kernel API for generic things
like IRQ, DMA and ioctl handling stuff can hardly be called to be derived from the kernel.
..."

A (non-trivial) driver NEVER does everything itself. It includes headers from kernel, which in
turn include more headers, which ..., in addition to using declarations from GPL-ed code,
results also in inlining GPL-ed code.

"... It would a stupid thing, but probably not illegal."

Huh. please forgive those poor kernel devs. All they know is coding and obviously they just
copy the GPL sentences into their headers like everybody else without meaning anything with
that :)

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Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Nov 14, 2007 20:33 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (subscriber, #19270) [Link]

"A (non-trivial) driver NEVER does everything itself. It includes headers from kernel, which
in turn include more headers, which ..., in addition to using declarations from GPL-ed code,
results also in inlining GPL-ed code."

Yes, but if those things are found to be functional rather than expressive (that is, they're
just what you need to do to interface with the system), then including them arguably doesn't
make the module either infringing or derivative. 

Again, not a slam dunk one way or the other.