Re: cdrtools

[Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca>]

Jorg Schilling wrote:

[...]

> Sorry, but I do not believe people that put things into a GPL FAQ that
> are obviously wrong. Let me give a single example to avoid wasting too
> much time:

> The FSF GPL FAQ e.g. incorrectly claims:

> 	Linking ABC statically or dynamically with other modules is
> 	making a combined work based on ABC. Thus, the terms and
> 	conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
> 	combination.

> The GPL does not contain the term "combined work", so this is an
> invalid claim.

The GPL does, however, contain the term "work based on [the Program]".
Calling it a "combined work based on [the Program]" does not change the
fact that it is a "work based on [the Program]".  The "combined" is
merely a clarification on the term.

> The GPL rather talks about a "derived work" and simply linking two
> modules together does definitely not make module B a "derived work" of
> module A if module A calls code from module B but module B does not
> call code from module A.

No, but the combined work (A+B) (i.e. a binary produced by linking
module A with module B) is a "work based on" A, and hence (A+B) must be
distributable under the terms of the GPL.

Distributing the sources of A with the sources of B may be fine, but
Debian would not be legally allowed to distribute a binary produced by
linking A with B, since this would not be "mere aggregation".

You brought up the question of Cygwin in a previous message, but that is
covered by the exception given in the second-last paragraph of section 3.

-- 
Hubert Chan - email & Jabber: hubert@uhoreg.ca - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
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