I'd really like to agree with you, but I have long, long experience working with this issue due to working with OpenAFS (whose implementation predated the existence of Linux, although I suppose one can argue about whether the small amount of Linux-specific code is a derivative work). It's covered by the IBM Public License, which is another GPL-incompatible license (although for less significant reasons).
Our experience is that EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL gets slapped on all sorts of things essentially at random, including interfaces for which you can't make any coherent claim that they're more of a copyright violation than many others not similarly tagged. Symbols that were available in previous versions are often withdrawn behind the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL barrier unless people complain (a lot), despite Linus's previous guarantee that this wouldn't be done. It's basically a complete mess from the perspective of a third-party, open-source kernel module developer (and relicensing OpenAFS is a giant disaster that won't ever happen, for reasons that aren't worth getting into).
The kernel definitely does not have clean hands here.
Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at Aurora. Ex-biologist. mjg59 on Twitter. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon.
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Date: 2014-05-11 04:26 pm (UTC)Our experience is that EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL gets slapped on all sorts of things essentially at random, including interfaces for which you can't make any coherent claim that they're more of a copyright violation than many others not similarly tagged. Symbols that were available in previous versions are often withdrawn behind the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL barrier unless people complain (a lot), despite Linus's previous guarantee that this wouldn't be done. It's basically a complete mess from the perspective of a third-party, open-source kernel module developer (and relicensing OpenAFS is a giant disaster that won't ever happen, for reasons that aren't worth getting into).
The kernel definitely does not have clean hands here.