SFC: GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux

Posted Feb 25, 2016 21:50 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341)
In reply to: SFC: GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux by vonbrand
Parent article: SFC: GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux

The adaptations, if they did not modify the CDDL ZFS core, could be distributed as GPLv2.

I.e., if you took the unmodified CDDL ZFS core, and you wrote a translation/adaption layer between Linux APIs and the ZFS ones, then only the translation layer would be subject to the GPLv2 of Linux. The CDDL would not extend to the adaption layer, as the CDDL is a "weak" copyleft licence and restricts itself to covered files and "modifications" (exactly what that means may not be 100% clear).

That would be no different to the initial argument for NVidias' binary driver not being derived from Linux.

The key question is: Has the 'core' indeed been left unmodified, and free of changes to accommodate Linux?