This is the Slackware COPYRIGHT file. This file provides documentation about many of the licenses used by components included in Slackware, as well as some acknowledgements (some required, some freely given). This is not meant to be a list of all copyrights and contributors. For complete information about all copyrights and licenses, refer to the package documentation installed under /usr/doc/ and to the included source code. ---------------- The Linux(R) kernel is licensed under the GPL version 2, which can be found in the file COPYING. Linus offers his interpretation of how the GPL applies to the kernel at the top of the COPYING file found in the kernel sources. Here's the quote: "NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated.