Re: [Firebird-devel] Warning: readline is GPL - incompatible with MPL

["Joe Moore" <joemoore@iegrec.org>]

[sent only to debian-legal.  Comments are program-independant]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> Users do not violate the GPL: the GPL does not govern use of a program.
>  But it would be illegal for Debian to *ship* a version of FireBird
> that uses libreadline.

On further research, http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL
seems to imply that linking a program to a GPL library (even for personal
use) means the program must be GPL.

This seems like a contradiction.

> 
> That is, if all you need are your private headers and stub library,
> that's fine -- as long as that's what FireBird uses by default when
> installed.  If FireBird ships with a Depends: libreadlinex, then
> clearly we are linking against libreadline.

So would pseudocode like:
if ( lib = dl_load("libreadline") )
	//Use libreadline code
else
	//Use internal stub
	lib = dl_load("libreadline_stubs"); 

be a way around this?  Especially if the program only Suggests: libreadline?

--Joe