Re: Combining proprietary code and GPL for in-house use
Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org> writes:
> Thomas Bushnell, BSG <tb@becket.net>:
>
> > Linking is not necessarily copyright violation, but if combined with
> > certain other acts, the whole thing, including all its parts, are an
> > instance of illegal copying. The total combination would indeed have
> > to be an act of copying, but it's quite irrelevant whether each and
> > every piece is.
>
> Unless you come up with a relevant example, this is going to look more
> like tedious niggling than a useful contribution to any discussion.
We have a case here of a work composed of two parts:
A) a gpl'd library
B) a main program with a gpl-incompatible license
The combined act of distributing A and B, with the intention to
combine them into A+B is the combined case.
Distributing A alone is not illegal. Distributing B alone is not
illegal.
Distributing A+B is illegal. And it's illegal no matter how many
people divide up the work, as long as what they are doing is intending
to distribute A+B. You have to look at the *total situation* and not
just ask "is linking a copyright violation"?
The case we were talking about *is* a relevant example.
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