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If anyone has a better title for this question feel free to edit

I am wondering about something related to the conflict between CDDL (Sun's license) and the GPL. Mainly pertaining to the reason ZFS cannot be added to the Linux kernel.

I was told ZFS cannot be distributed with the Linux kernel because it would be derived work of the kernel and according to CDDL it cannot legally be distributed because of the conflict with GPL.

Is this the same as saying because the ZFS module's origin is that of the Linux kernel it cannot be legally distributed?

Am I even close?

This brings to my real question.

Is it legal for me to compile my own kernel with ZFS inside of it?

As in could I add the code to the kernel and roll my own kernel with ZFS built in? Or does this still violate the terms of the licensing?

It would not be distributed (physically at least) but I would most likley write some kind of tutorial on it.

Any input would be great.

soandos
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AtomicPorkchop
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1 Answers1

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One of the Linux ZFS distributions has a reasonable answer: http://zfsonlinux.org/faq.html#WhatAboutTheLicensingIssue

They also have the incentive to care deeply about what is or isn't legal.

Daniel Pittman
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