Re: [Firebird-devel] Warning: readline is GPL - incompatible with
Joe Drew wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-08-07 at 16:12, Joe Moore wrote:
["them" here refers to a GPL library linked to a GPL-incompatible work. The
link is performed by the end user, and the combined work is not distributed]
>> Linking them doesn't create a combined work? (According to the GPL
>> FAQ, it does)
>
> Yes, but it's not _creating_ a combined work (or a modified work, or
> whatever), but _distributing_ it that is the issue.
But that's _not_ clear from the license. (And if there's one thing I've
learned from debian-legal, it's that the license must make things clear)
Section 1 of the GPL grants permission to "copy and distribute verbatim
copies".
Section 2 grants permission to "modify [...], and copy, and distribute".
Section 3 grants permission to "copy and distribute" in binary form.
Section 4 forbids all other ways to "copy, modify, sublicense, or
distribute".
Nowhere in the GPL is permission to "modify without distribution".
The user wants to build an improved version of FireBird, but not distribute
the results. Does the GPL allow them to link GNU Readline with FireBird
(but not changing any other aspect of the source) for their own use?
--Joe
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