On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 10:02:23AM -0800, Terry Hancock wrote: > and you're starting to say that the GPL denies you the right to look > at http://www.microsoft.com with a free web browser, or http://www.fsf.org > with IE. Not at all. > What's the difference? The distinction between a web protocol > (HTTP) and an RPC API (XML-RPC) is somewhat artificial, and definitely > legally fuzzy! The main point to consider here is the intent of the person providing the GPL client. Remember that the GPL says it is ALWAYS ok to create non-free derivatives of GPL works, if you don't distribute them at all. This means that, even if you regard a remote website as an RPC call, when the *user* combines the browser and server by typing in a URL or following a link, no GPL violation can have occurred. I was going to say something more about distinguishing between a remote data source and a remote function call, but given CGI-provided web pages I think it becomes fuzzy and is not at all needed to show why a web page is ok and an XML-RPC call is not. I think the GPL is already clear enough to give us the answers we need here, precisely *because* it doesn't refer to specific linking technologies; but I don't have time to write about that right now -- hopefully later today. > Now suppose I create a proprietary web site on a CD (not so popular anymore, > but still has uses), and I want to put Galeon, say, with sources on the disk > so you can read my site. If it's a static site (I gather) you'll say this is > okay, but if the site has any active content (say a binary CGI), then you're > going to start saying I'm actually linking the code? > What about interpreters? I was under the impression that a Free interpreter > could run non-free code and vice-versa. But that is even a tighter binding > than these RPC issues. A Free interpreter -- not necessarily a GPL interpreter. There are some hairy issues with GPL interpreters that could indeed prevent Debian from shipping GPL-incompatible scripts together with GPL interpreters, I believe. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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