Re: 6 GPL'ed Packages that depend on XForms.

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Jonathan P Tomer <jpt@cif.rochester.edu> writes:

> > >    "You may link this software with XForms (Copyright (c) by
> > >   T.C. Zhao and Mark Overmars).  You are not required to include
> > >   this paragraph in the license for derivatives of this
> > >   software."

> > I think such an amendment should also explicitly specify that I may
> > distribute the resulting binary under the conditions in clause 3
> > of the GPL.

> no... that's exactly what it tries not to do. remember, it's an amendment to
> the gpl, it doesn't have to justify itself by calling on other clauses of
> the original.

It't not justifying, it's *specifying*. If it does not say I'm allowed
to distribute the with-xforms binaries, I cannot do so.

If it only said,

  "You can distribute binaries linked with xforms."

I would be allowed to distribute said binaries without sources, which
would open a barn door for proprietary exploitation (make some
modifications, keep them secret, link the modified source with xforms,
sell the binaries withot disclosing the source modification).

So the amendment has to specify somehow *when* I can distribute the
xforms-linked binarues. And its easier just to refer to clause 3 of
the GPL than re-stating the same conditions in the amendment.

-- 
Henning Makholm