[linux-elitists] How is it possible to have a dual licensed Linux Distro.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ben Finney (ben@benfinney.id.au):

> Any work of creative expression recognised under copyright law 
> automatically has a copyright holder. A GNU/Linux distribution, if it 
> involves such creative expression, can thus be licensed as a whole by  
> its copyright holder, and can even be dual-licensed, as with any other 
> work.
> 
> Of course, such a distribution would be a derived work of all the 
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> parts that comprise it,
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^            

Hereby disputed.  Actually, on reflection, I'll just say "No, sir."

"Derivative work" as a term of art within copyright law needs to be
carefully distinguished from bundling without derivation (what FSF
likes to call "mere aggregation").  Most constituent codebases on a
typical Linux (GNU/Linux, whatever) distribution are highly unlikely to
ever be judged derivative works of each other.

(IANAL, TINLA, YADA.)