GPL-only symbol Error

[Jeff Haran]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg KH [mailto:greg at kroah.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 2:44 PM
> To: Jeff Haran; Sengottuvelan S; Kernel Newbies
> Subject: Re: GPL-only symbol Error
> 
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 02:35:24PM -0800, Jeff Haran wrote:
> > I've seen others when faced with this who build their own kernels
from
> > sources just modify the problematic EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()s to
> > EXPORT_SYMBOL()s. I don't know if that is legal. I wouldn't do it
> > personally. Consult a lawyer before you go down that road.
> 
> It is not legal and companies have gotten into big trouble by trying
to
> do that, or by creating "gpl-condom" kernel modules that wrap gpl-only
> symbols and export them again.  Do not do that without the full buy-in
> from your legal department as they do not want to hear about it from
an
> external query first.
> 

Greg,

Just curious, can you provide links to these cases?

I've read the COPYING file at the top of the Linux source tree. I am not
a lawyer, but I don't see anything in it that would prohibit somebody
from taking the GPL kernel sources, changing the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL()s to
EXPORT_SYMBOL()s, publishing that modified kernel source as required by
the GPL license but then keep their module source that uses the now
non-GPL symbols private. It seems like it should be prohibited in the
spirit of open source, but I don't see any mention of these symbol
declarations in the license.

Thanks,

Jeff Haran