[cc-community] GNU-GPL, makefiles, and non-distributed executables

rob at robmyers.org rob at robmyers.org
Mon Dec 17 04:48:54 EST 2007


Quoting Kyle Williams <kylewilliams at openwarriors.org>:
> On Monday 17 December 2007 06:52:56 David wrote:
>> This is why Georges work needs to be included - Alice's app literally
>> can't exist without it (any more than the existential state can exist
>> without the phenomenological), existence is denied for want of an
>> environment - books are capable of standing alone, with no more than a
>> bibliographical section somewhere in the back, supplying a nodding
>> reference.
>
> Thanks David, this is exactly what I was getting at. Perhaps   
> referencing isn't
> the correct term when it comes to software. "Including" would probably be a
> better one. Since Alice's app makes use of Georges work she needs to
> include/import Georges work in her source files.

"Linking" is the point where the two pieces of copyrighted work are  
combined to create a single new copyrightable, derivative, work. This  
may be static linking, which creates a single work on disk, or dynamic  
linking, which creates a single work in memory.

Greg's scenario is the same as the one that NeXT ran past GNU and that  
GNU said no to. Alice "uses" the code by producing code that can be  
linked against it, not by distributing that code. That code is only  
useful when linked with a particular piece of software and so it is a  
derivative work.

Linking is inclusion. The derived, linked, software includes both  
pieces of software in memory and/or on disk and they will not work  
separately. How this relates to bitmaps containing text and images  
licensed under Free licenses is left as an exercise for the reader. ;-)

IANAL, TINLA.

- Rob.




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