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Re: GPL and command-line libraries



On Sun, Nov 28, 2004 at 01:49:51AM +0000, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > So how can the FSF talk about linked applications being derivative
> > works.
> 
> They use a legal loophole known as "freedom of speech", which enables
> them to make claims that may not be actually be true as stated. If the
> question of whether a given work is derived from a GPLed library ends
> up in court (whit, ttbomk it yet never has), there is no guarantee
> that the court will accept the FSF's claim as the natural basis for
> making the judgement.

This isn't specific to the GPL; lawyers have been playing games with
'derivative' for decades. No useful precedent that I'm aware of -
cases have gone both ways (courts won't accept people trying to
disguise derivation via weirdness, but they don't have a good
definition for that either, so the problem remains lawyer-bait).

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
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