[OpenAFS-devel] [Patch] add module license macro to Linux kernel module

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Sat, May 07, 2005 at 12:34:53AM -0400, Chaskiel Grundman wrote:
> On Fri, 6 May 2005, Matthew Miller wrote:
> 
> > however, I think it'd be *beter* if the
> >message weren't "libafs: module license 'unspecified' taints kernel", which
> >can look kind of scary. So, this makes it be "libafs: module license 'IBM
> >Public License Version 1.0' taints kernel" instead, which is at least more
> [...]
> My objection to doing this is that while it will help some users, it also 
> in sense legitimizes the whole license checking scheme, and I'd rather we 
> didn't help do that.
> 
> If we had a non-flamey FAQ describing the issue, then putting a URL to it 
> in the license field instead would make me happier. I'm not volunteering to 
> provide such a thing, however.

What is the real (or perceived) conflict with the IBM public license and
the GPL?

I don't really see what is not legitimate about the license checking
scheme though. I'm tempted to submit a patch to the kernel that adds a 
'TAINT_OSS_MODULE' flag to indicate that an OSI approved, but not
necessarily GPL compatible module was loaded.