On Fri, 2016-08-26 at 17:19 -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Not only is "linking" not something that has any legal meaning, but
> the GPLv2 doesn't even mention it.  Yet people _continually_ talk
> about linking.

They do, and it's a pain.

> But what the license says - and more importantly, what copyright law
> itself actually is all about - is not linking, but "derived work".

You're close to one of the other errors that people continually make.

The licence specifically talks about "derivative or collective works".

It isn't just about "derived work" in the sense of "is your module a
derived work of the kernel?".

It also includes "is your module shipped as part of a collective work
including the kernel?".

And I'm not intending to get into specific *answers* to those questions
in this case, but we should not forget that they *are* the questions. 

You're right; we should not keep talking about "linking".

And we should not keep talking about "derived work" as if it's all that
matters.

-- 
dwmw2