On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 04:56:00PM +0200, Claus Färber wrote: > Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu> schrieb/wrote: > > What's in a normal Debian install doesn't matter, because it all gets > > distributed together on mirrors and in cd-packs. There's a very > > specific phrase used to keep MS and Sun from shipping Emacs with their > > proprietary libc: "unless that component itself accompanies the > > executable." > If we follow this interpretation, this means that you can't distribute > an closed source OS with GPL tools. IMO, this was not the intention of > the GPL authors. Of course it was. The GPL is about advancing the cause of a wholly free operating system; giving free operating systems a competitive advantage over non-free operating systems that happen to provide free tools is precisely in line with the goals of the framers. And while you're free to doubt that this was the intent, this is nevertheless what the letter of the license encodes. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature