Not necessarily so. The developers feel that any code using that symbol
is necessarily a derivative work, but at the end of the day it would be
up to the legal system to decide whether it really is or not.
If the courts decided that the symbol could be used and the driver
wouldn't be a derivative work, it would be perfectly legal to use a
GPL'd shim to "re-export" the symbol, essentially stripping off the
GPL-only protection for that symbol.
In our group all kernel modules that we write are GPL'd, as it lets us
sleep at night, simplifies our lives, and makes the lawyers much
happier. Other people may be willing to take more risks.
Chris
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