The FSF's position that I have heard is that these modules, e.g. the nvidia module, is a GPL violation that the Linux maintainers have no desire to prosecute. In the FSF's opinion it's likely that a judge would say that user-does-the-link is subterfuge to try to get around copyleft.
On the other hand, seeing how everyone turns their back on you when you do try to prosecute GPL violations (e.g. SFC and the VMWare GPL lawsuit), I can see why the Linux maintainers don't try to enforce their copyleft. It certainly doesn't help that the Linux foundation is almost entirely run by companies that do not want the GPL to have teeth.
Re:Passing the Baton
by peterwwillis on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @02:38PM
(#14205729)
Distribute changes, it's all GPL. Don't distribute changes, it's whatever you want it to be. This does not change depending on how "distinct" your change is.
Is this true? I would think that as long as your "new" code is sufficiently distinct from the stuff you're replacing, you'd be fine distributing a non-GPL patch (at least if it's e.g. purely positional to elide context related issues). The result of applying the patch would not be distributable, but I'd think the patch itself would be fine.