ReiserFS Licensing ...

[Candy]

I got a reply, The only documentation are the website and the source code.

BTW It appears that your OS had to be GPL'ed as well (mine shall be).

srg

Only if you use their source code directly does it have to be GPL. If you only look at it for concepts and ideas (and logic) you should be able to use it for educational purposes.

[Pype.Clicker]

btw, if you make it clearly separated from the rest of the system, there's no reason it makes your OS GPL. GPL just requires that if you're embedding code in yours, your code becomes GPL, but it places no restriction on interacting with a GPL program compiled and distributed on its own.

[Candy]

... but it places no restriction on interacting with a GPL program compiled and distributed on its own.

Small detail: RMS (the author of the GPL and globally known under this acronym) wants the gpl also to apply to people using the GPL'ed code in ANY way. That means interacting (because you implement the interface at both ends, you must've copied parts of it or sth) and learning (since you are going to make code that does the exact same, or something like that). He has his views listed at gnu.org last time I checked.

He also doesn't realise ubiquitous things to be left out, so he keeps insisting on calling a very commonly used OS "GNU/Linux" since most of it is GNU and not Linux. He is right, of course, but since there's no somethingelse/linux nobody cares about the GNU part. It's there and even if you hate it you can't dump it.

He on his site even includes things that are directly against laws in most, if not all, countries, such as disallowing multiple distribution, which is usually something enforced by law:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.htm ... PLAllowNDA
He even contradicts it on the same page: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.htm ... herLicense

[Pype.Clicker]

okay, let's put it somehow else.

Let's say i'm clever enough to design a "VFS" layer to my OS and to make it LGPL.
Including that LGPL headers in the GPL "reiser module" isn't against GPL and having LGPL headers used in MyOs with MyLicensing isn't against LGPL either (that's LGPL is all about, iirc: you protect your code without entaching code that uses it)

So voil?. You clearly can distribute MyOs under the term of MyLicensing althogether with the VFS sources (as LGPL states) the reiser module (and its source, according to GPL statements)

Or am i still missing something that would make a GPL line of code totally useless and harmful to anyone not endorsing the Great Emacs Church of St Gnucius (as to almost quote RMS himself)?

(OT: you can meet me at the Restaurant at the End of Universe if a private discussion is needed)

[AR]

The GPL states derivatives which is a very nasty term in computer software (only the BIOS is not a derivative of something else) but fortuantely it appears to limit its scope by explicitly stating that only software containing the code itself is affected. The licence is indicative of being intended to be infectious of programs even behind abstraction layers (eg. a GPL-ed driver under the kernel under a library still affects your program with GPL-ed terms of a derivative work [if you explicitly rely on it (IIUC)].

[Crazed123]

Well this sure helps those who want documentation of the Reiser and Reiser4 filesystems.