[JDEV] GPL Licensing and Clients

[David Waite]

Please note that I do *not* want to go into licensing discussions on this
listserv :) If you wish to debate my opinion below, please do so off the
list.

The important thing to note is that the actual GPL never mentions the word
'linking' in it. It is a redistribution license which gains its power solely
from copyright - being that you cannot publish work including the
copyrighted work a derivative of said work, or a collection including said
work without some form of agreement between your party and the copyright
holder. GPL is such an agreement, but if you note it uses the term
'derivative work', not linking.

My interpretation (and I am not a lawyer) is this:

Whether something is staticly or dynamically linked, if you distribute
something that is a derivative work of the code provided without providing
source for said work under either the GPL or a license compatible with the
GPL, you could be considered to be infringing on the copyright of said
software. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html , section 2 paragraph 2.

Many people go so far as to say it would be impossible to write a GPL'd
MFC-based program, for instance - because the GPL is completely incompatible
with the MFC source license. Section 3 paragraph 2 remedies this consern at
least for me (as MFC could be considered a standard component distributed
with the compiler).

Copyright violation means nothing if the copyright holder does not take you
to court, but if you plan to distribute a major application - I personally
would seek additional assurances or clarification from the author. You will
note that the linux kernel provides such a distinction, that 'binary
modules' are not considered derivative works as long as they only use the
published API of the kernel.

-David Waite

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Charron" <tcharron at ductape.net>
To: <jdev at jabber.org>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: [JDEV] GPL Licensing and Clients


> > My question regards GPL licensing and the use of, specifically, a
> > GPL'ed COM object by Jabber clients.  Does this GPL license require
> > that all users of the COM object also use a GPL license?
>
>     Specifically dealing with COM, the application *NEVER* links with it.
> It could very well be a stand alone application, and hence, any licence on
> the COM component will not affect the end application.  The OS marshals
> between the app and COM, so it's not even loaded like a library would be.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> jdev mailing list
> jdev at jabber.org
> http://mailman.jabber.org/listinfo/jdev
>