Re: [GPL] No linking with proprietary programs: where?
Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> Brian Kimball <bfk@footbag.org> writes:
>
> > Where did you get "entire program"? That's not in the GPL. Isn't the
> > question to be asked "is it a derivative work of a GPLed work?" Maybe
> > I'm too focused on the phrase "derivative work"; are there cases where
> > the GPL can require that the source code for non-derivative works be
> > released also?
>
> "These requirements [those of distributing source, etc.] apply to the
> modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are
> not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered
> independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and
> its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as
> separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of
> a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the
> whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for
> other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every
> part regardless of who wrote it."
>
> Especially read again the sentence: "But when you distribute the same
> sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the
> distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License."
>
> In other words, if I write a GPL'd function find_outer_otter, and you
> call it from your own function locate_inner_otter, in you program
> frob-otters, then:
>
> 1) locate_inner_otter might itself be derived from
> find_outer_otter. If so, then locate_inner_otter must itself be
> GPL.
I agree.
> 2) If locate_inner_otter is not derived from find_outer_otter, but
> you distribute binaries for frob-otters, then you must still give
> the complete source code for both locate_inner_otter and
> find_outer_otter. The reason is that the GPL lets you copy
> find_outer_otter only if you distribute the "the whole on the
> terms of this License."
If locate_inner_otter isn't derived from find_outer_otter, how can it be
considered part of "the modified work as a whole" which the requirements
apply to? Doesn't "modified work as a whole" mean "(something derived
from find_outer_otter) as a whole"?
> 3) If you attempt to defeat (2) by distributing the two functions
> separately, or distributing only locate_inner_otter, and telling
> users how to combine them to produce frob-otters, and there is no
> way to make locate_inner_otter useful without doing so, then a
> court will find that you were attempting a subterfuge, and that
> what you were doing was the same thing as (2) for all practical
> purposes.
I assume this isn't the case _if_ I'm correct regarding (2).
--
Brian Kimball
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