released <a href="#diagram">the diagram above</a> to exemplify that

       issue.  Conservancy continues to <a href="#court-documents">hope VMware will

       agree to make public all court documents</a> as a matter of public

       good, since the court documents discuss the specifics of alleged

         infringement on Hellwig's copyrights.</p>

       <p>However, Conservancy examined VMware's ESXi 5.5 product in detail

       even before Hellwig's enforcement action began.  Below is one example

       among many where VMware's CCS was incomplete per GPLv2§2(c) and

       GPLv2§3(a).  (One can verify these results by

       <a href="#verify">downloading and installing the binary and source

       packages for VMware's ESXi 5.5 Update 2</a>.)  Note that this

       example below is not necessarily regarding

       Hellwig's copyrights; VMware incorporated Linux code copyrighted by

       many others as well into their kernel.</p>

       <h4>Example of &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo;'s combination with Linux code</h4>

       <p>As one example, examine the file

           called <code>vmkdrivers/src_92/vmklinux_92/vmware/linux_pci.c</code>,

           which can be found in the “Open Source” release for

           ESXi 5.5.0 Update 2 (5.5U2).  A small excerpt from that file, found in the

           function <code>LinuxPCIDeviceRemoved()</code>, reads as follows:

<pre>

if (unlikely(

  /* NOTE: vmk_PCIGetDeviceName is defined in vmvisor64-vmkernel */

  vmk_PCIGetDeviceName(vmkDev, vmkDevName, sizeof(vmkDevName)-1) != VMK_OK))

{

    vmkDevName[0] = 0;

}

[...]

/* VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID is a macro calling driver's remove() here */

VMKAPI_MODULE_CALL_VOID(pciDevExt->moduleID,

                        linuxDev->driver->remove,

                        linuxDev);

</pre>        

</p>

<p>The function, <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code> must be defined, with an

      implementation, for this code above to work, or even compile.

      Inside <code>BLD/build/HEADERS/vmkapi-current-all-public/vmkernel64/release/device/vmkapi_pci_incompat.h</code>,

      found in the <code>vmkdrivers</code> package of ESXi 5.5U2, shows a

      function header definition for <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code>.

      However, the source of its implementation is not provided there or

      anywhere in the source release.</p>

<p>Further evidence that the implementation of this function occurs elsewhere

  can by found by running <code>objdump -x</code> on the un-vmtar'ed

  <code>vmklinux_9</code> module.  Note the following output in the &ldquo;SYMBOL

  TABLE” section:

<pre>

0000000000000000         *UND*  0000000000000000 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName

</pre>

…and the following lines found in the  “RELOCATION RECORDS FOR

[.text]” section:

<pre>

00000000000327ff R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

0000000000035318 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

00000000000387e1 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

000000000003cf40 R_X86_64_PC32     vmk_PCIGetDeviceName+0xfffffffffffffffc

</pre>

</p>

<p>The above two properties both suggest that the <code>vmklinux_9</code>

 module requires: (a) a definition of the <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName()</code>

 function to operate, but (b) that function is not defined

 inside <code>vmklinux_9</code> itself.</p>

<p>The definition can however be found in binary-only software provided in

  ESXi 5.5U2 &mdash; specifically, inside a file named <code>k.b00</code>,

  which is located in partition 5 on a disk where ESXi has been installed (or

  in the ESXi 5.5U2 installer ISO image).  Running <code>file</code>

  after <code>gunzip</code> on this file yields &ldquo;ELF 64-bit LSB shared

  object&rdquo;.  Meanwhile, <code>file k.b00</code> reports &ldquo;gzip

  compressed data, was ‘vmvisor64-vmkernel.stripped’”.

  These findings strongly suggests this is an image of the

  &ldquo;vmkernel&rdquo; component.  An <code>objdump -x</code> yields this

  “SYMBOL TABLE” section:

<pre>

000041800036a408 g     F .text  0000000000000137 vmk_PCIGetDeviceName

</pre>

… which indicated these binary file contains the function body

for  <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName</code>.</p>

<p>Finally, after detailed searching, Conservancy found no evidence that any

  other code (other than modified Linux code) makes calls

  to <code>vmk_PCIGetDeviceName</code>.  This provides a strong indication

  that this function's primary purpose is to combine Linux code with

  “vmkernel”.  Conservancy also found other functions where similar analysis

  yields similar results as above.</p>

<p>Given this evidence and related contextual clues, the only logical

  conclusions are:

    <ul><li><code>vmklinux_9</code>, as a binary object, dynamically links

 with <code>k.b00</code>, another binary object, to form a single running