Umm.. It's OK to take the GPL'ed source and make your own fork for your ownAnd the hate mail is the only thing that will arrive. The GPL doesn't really seem
amusement. Trying to distribute it without accepting the GPL on the parts
you're shipping copies of *is* a problem. As the COPYING file says:
5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
the Program or works based on it.
So you have three choices: You can accept the terms of the GPL, and comply
with them, or you can not ship those pieces covered by the GPL (basically
the entire kernel), or you can ship it in violation and wait for the hate
mail to start arriving.....