Let me add some text I wrote for another place but that explains how things would work:
1) The OpenSource definition http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php section 9 makes it very clear that an OSS license must not restrict other software and must not prevent to bundle different works under different licenses on one medium. 2) given the fact that the GPL is an aproved OSS licensse, it obviously complies with the OSS definition. 3) as a result, any GPL interpretation that is based on the assumption that a separate distribution would fix problems is wrong. There is a simple rule: - If you modify a GPLd work by your own, so that all you add was written by you for this modification only, then you created a "derivative work" and you need to put your modifications under GPL. - If you add another independent work to a GPLd work, you create a so called "collective work". This is permitted by the GPL. In this case, the GPL only applies to the GPLd part and the license for the other work applies to the other work. You need to respect the sum of all claims from all licenses in this case. Such a collective work can only be distributed if the claims from the licenses are not contradicting. If one license e.g. permits redistribution on Mondays only and the other permits redistribution on Wednesdays only, you cannot publish the collective work. ZFS is an independent work with respect to the Linx kernel. It was not written for or with the Linux kernel. - If like to you add ZFS to the Linux kernel, you first need to create a derivative work from ZFS and another derivative work from the Linux kernel in order to allow both to work together. You later create a collective work from the combination of the derivative works mentioned before. The modification in the ZFS code (in case they appear in files that come with ZFS) need to be put under CDDL, the modifications in the Linux kernel need to be put under GPL. Note: the GPLv3 tries to disallow most collective works, so be careful with GPLv3. Jörg -- EMail:jo...@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin j...@cs.tu-berlin.de (uni) joerg.schill...@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/ URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
