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

Rob Myers rob at robmyers.org
Mon Dec 17 14:15:17 EST 2007


Terry Hancock wrote:
> rob at robmyers.org wrote:
>> Quoting Terry Hancock <hancock at anansispaceworks.com>:
>>> Eve's code is merely "designed to work with" George's work. However,
>>> that is "use" and is not covered.
>> Eve's work is object files that are designed to be useful only when  
>> linked against George's work. This is not working with, this is  
>> combining with and creating a derivative of. It is an issue of  
>> copyright not functionality or interaction.
> 
> Usefulness has nothing to do with inclusion or derivation for copyright
> purposes. 

Absolutely.

> Hence, a necessity for functional utility is NOT a criterion for
> considering a work to be "included" in another work.

Hence "it is an issue of copyright not functionality or interaction".

Linking creates a single text in memory. This is different from the 
examples you give. A concordance that *did* quote the entirety of "Lord 
Of The Rings" would be more like a linked computer program than a 
bibliography of scientific works would be.

> Yes and yes it does. But you can link a GPL work with any other thing
> you please as long as you don't distribute ("use" is not restricted).
> GNU also argues this, quite strongly, when defending the "freedom" of
> the GPL's copyleft.

DLLs and object files must be distributed in order to be linked in the 
scenario we are discussing.

This is different from coding up proprietary extensions in-house.

>> GNU have historically drawn the line somewhere before distributing  
>> object files to be linked against GPL-covered software as the NeXT  
>> example shows.
> 
> I agree that GNU would like to restrict this case. I think that quite
> possibly they have succeeded in doing so in the GPLv3. But "GPL" still
> means "GPLv2" to me, and I don't think it covers this case.

GNU have disagreed, and I doubt that NeXT agreed without consulting 
their lawyers. But I agree that GPL 3 covers this better, among its many 
other virtues.

- Rob.


More information about the cc-community mailing list