Put it in laymen's terms

[Mark Wells]

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On Sat, 31 Jul 1999, Ken Arromdee wrote:

> On 31 Jul 1999 bruce at perens.com wrote:
> > It's a moot point for Linux because of the following exception to the GPL:
> > 
> > 	NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel
> > 	services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use
> > 	of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
> > 	Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
> > 	Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux
> > 	kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
> > 
> > 			Linus Torvalds
> 
> It is not clear that Linus can do that.  If you are of the belief that a

Well, yes, he can.  It's his code.  He can license it however he wants.

> system call produces a derivative work, then when Linux says that it does not
> do so, he is modifying the license.  He can modify the license on his own code,
> but he cannot modify the license on code which other people have contributed.

He can't take code that other people have *licensed* to him and relicense
it under his modified GPL.  But if they *contribute* it to him, with the
understanding that he's going to be able to set his own license terms, he
can.
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