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The linux operating system generally contains large amounts of code that fall under the GNU General Public License, or GPL for short. This file contains source code that by it's very nature would always be linked with an application program, and because of this a GPL type of copyright on this file would place restrictions upon the distribution of binary-only commercial software. Since the goal of the Linux project as a whole is not to discourage the development and distribution of commercial software for Linux, this file has been placed under a more relaxed BSD-style of copyright.
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