Re: GPL-licensed packages with depend-chain to OpenSSL
On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 05:15:04PM -0400, Raul Miller wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 04:38:04PM -0400, Glenn Maynard wrote:
> > So, you don't need an extreme example. It's perfectly valid for one to
> > take Emacs, link it against OpenSSL, and distribute binaries, as long as
> > OpenSSL doesn't accompany it.
>
> In the U.S., at least, "linking it against OpenSSL" probably counts as
> "accompanying it", even if the binaries for the OpenSSL library do not
> appear on the same distribution media as the binaries for Emacs.
Huh? Are you claiming that the OS exception doesn't allow linking against
GPL-incompatible system libraries? I've always found that to be a major part
of its purpose; otherwise, it would be impossible to eg. distribute GPL
Windows applications at all--libc, GUI libraries, etc. are all GPL-incompatible.
If you disagree, we might have to punt to the FSF yet again. This is a
critical question to me, since I'm involved in a project that makes use of
a GPL library which runs in Windows.
(Of course, another, simpler reason for the exception is so you don't
have to include the glibc source with every GPL program.)
--
Glenn Maynard
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