Dustin Kirkland
on 18 February 2016


This article was last updated 9 year s ago.

We at Canonical have conducted a legal review, including discussion with the industry’s leading software freedom legal counsel, of the licenses that apply to the Linux kernel and to ZFS.

And in doing so, we have concluded that we are acting within the rights granted and in compliance with their terms of both of those licenses.  Others have independently achieved the same conclusion.  Differing opinions exist, but please bear in mind that these are opinions.

While the CDDL and GPLv2 are both “copyleft” licenses, they have different scope. The CDDL applies to all files under the CDDL, while the GPLv2 applies to derivative works.

The CDDL cannot apply to the Linux kernel because zfs.ko is a self-contained file system module — the kernel itself is quite obviously not a derivative work of this new file system.

And 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. Equivalent exceptions have existed for many years, for various other stand alone, self-contained, non-GPL kernel modules.

Our conclusion is good for Ubuntu users, good for Linux, and good for all of free and open source software.

Original article


Newsletter
signup

Get the latest Ubuntu news and updates in your inbox.

By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to Canonical's Privacy Policy.

Related posts


didrocks
26 May 2020

ZFS focus on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS: what’s new?

Article Desktop

Ubuntu has supported ZFS as an option for some time. In 19.10, we introduced experimental support on the desktop. As explained, having a ZFS on root option on our desktop was only a first step in what we want to achieve by adopting this combined file system and logical volume manager. I strongly suggest you read

didrocks
26 May 2020


Martin Wimpress
24 April 2020

What’s new in Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS?

Article Desktop

Well, here it is! Ubuntu is the world’s most popular open-source desktop operating system, and we think this is our best release to date. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is an enterprise-grade, secure, cost-effective operating system for organisations and home users. Before I summarise the changes in this release, let’s address...

Martin Wimpress
24 April 2020


didrocks
7 August 2019

Enhancing our ZFS support on Ubuntu 19.10 – an introduction

Article Desktop

Ubuntu has supported ZFS as an option for some time. We started with a file-based ZFS pool on Ubuntu 15.10, then delivered it as a FS container in 16.04, and  recommended it for the fastest and most reliable container experience on LXD. We have also created some dedicated tutorials for users who want to become

didrocks
7 August 2019