SFLC: The Linux Kernel, CDDL and Related Issues

The Software Freedom Law Center weighsin on the ZFS controversy with a long and somewhat academic posting.The TL;DR is that it depends on what the kernel developers want."No existing record conclusively or convincingly demonstrates whetherthe only relevant licensing community, the holders of kernel copyright,intends a literal or equitable interpretation of its license terms underpresent circumstances. As so often in the long history of our law, bothliteral and equitable postures of interpretation are completely tenable,and reasonable people in the relevant roles may justifiably disagree. Thematter is smaller than that which divided the Pharisees from the Saducees,but from a legal theory point of view it is of the same fundamentalkind."