![]() “In sum, therefore,” they conclude, “no developer and no user is deprived of any rights.” So how can their legal opinion be used to justify going ahead with Canonical’s shipping plans? The reason is that Moglen and Choudhary go on to say that CDDL-licensed binary files can be legally shipped and stored with GPLed files. Moreover, since the CDDL allows relicensing such code and GPLv2 does not, Moglen and Choudhary find the two licenses incompatible. ![]() For example, according to Moglen and Choudhary, code that is linked into the kernel “becomes part of one work with the kernel, and a potential conflict of license terms results.” In other words, it becomes a derivative work. However, Moglen and Choudhary’s opinion appears to directly contradict Kirkland’s statements. He also maintains that zfs.ko, “as a self-contained file system module, is clearly not a derivative work of the Linux kernel but rather quite obviously a derivative work of OpenZFS and OpenSolaris.” This opinion was obtained from Eben Moglen and Mishi Choudhary of the Freedom Software Law Center, the leading source of legal advice for free software.ĭustin Kirkland, a member of the Ubuntu Product and Strategy team, blogs that Canonical is “acting within the rights granted and in compliance with their terms of both of those licenses.” He goes on to state that CDDL covers files, and GPLv2 derivative work - code that modifies and extends earlier code released GPLv2. The Legal OpinionĪlthough the ZFS on Linux project has existed for several years, Canonical appears to be the first to obtain a legal opinion on the potential license incompatibility. Many other projects could also be affected. However, the implications could prove extraordinary - in fact, they could indicate that, contrary to years of assumptions, the GPLv2 does not protect the Linux kernel at all. The fact that ZFS’s license, the Common Development and Distribution License ( CDDL), is a free license but incompatible with the GPL makes the case unusual, but the problem routine. ![]() Publicly, Canonical Software’s announcement that Ubuntu 16.04 will include the ZFS filesystem sounds like a potential violation of the second version of the GNU General Public License ( GPLv2).
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