Re: Corel's apt frontend
On Sat, Oct 30, 1999 at 11:40:16PM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> I suspect a blanket prohibition on reference by non-GPL'ed software
> would be incredibly dumb, even if it were permitted by copyright law.
> It would forbid anything non-free from operating as a shell (and would
> even prohibit KDE programs from launching GNU software). Not to
> mention that it'd be impossible to launch GNU software on a non-GNU
> system, or even boot a GNU system in the first place (as the boot
> sector is referenced by a non-free BIOS or other boot rom).
It's amazing how often this is misunderstood.
Use of a GPL program is not restricted, or even covered by the GPL.
Only copies, modifications and distributions are.
So, a blanko prohibition on reference would only affect the distribution
(etc) of a derived work, not the use.
Marcus
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