C.1 Exclusion of User-Space Applications from Kernel's GPL

To avoid any confusion regarding the status of applications running on top of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds added the following preamble to the kernel's license:

   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_ license (ie v2), unless explicitly otherwise
 stated.

                        Linus Torvalds