RE: [GPL] No linking with proprietary programs: where?
On Wed, Apr 05, 2000 at 01:52:39PM -0400, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> As a general legal rule, you cannot assume that A+B is legal, even if
> A separately is legal and B separately is legal; the combination can
> still be illegal.
This is very general. Copyright law can preempt licensing agreements-- for
example licensing provisions prohibiting decompiliation and reverse
engineering have been found to be in violation of the "fair use" provision
of the Copyright Act. (Sega v. Accolade holds this I'm pretty sure... maybe
Vault v. Quaid too)
The point being that if locate_outer is an original piece of work, it can be
distributed on any terms. It does not matter that it cannot be run without
locate_inner. If it is original, the locate_inner copyright holder has no
right in it, because it's not a derivative work. How a program could be both
original and dependent on another program is a mystery. But if it could be,
there would be no infringement.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-legal-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
listmaster@lists.debian.org
********************************************************************************************************************************
This transmission and any accompanying files are to be read only by the person for whom it is intended. This
transmission may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not
disseminate, distribute, or copy this transmission. Please immediately notify the sender that you have received
this transmission in error, and delete this transmission from your system.
Also, please note that in responding to this transmission or in forwarding electronic mail, the Internet is not
secure and the mail and/or its attachments could be intercepted by third parties. Further, when sending
electronic mail to our firm, it is important to confirm receipt of any time sensitive information, since the
intended recipient may not be monitoring incoming mail.
Seidel, Gonda, Lavorgna & Monaco PC
Phone: (215) 568-8383
Fax: (215) 568-5549
Reply to: