Re: Bug#189164: libdbd-mysql-perl uses GPL lib, may be used by GPL-incompatible apps

[Anthony DeRobertis <asd@suespammers.org>]

On Wednesday, May 7, 2003, at 01:50 AM, Branden Robinson wrote:

> Or are you wanting to restrict the problem domain to cases where an
> interface innovated in a GPLed library hasn't been cloned yet?

Given:
	1) Library GPLLib is under the GPL
	2) Perl module Iface provides an interface to various implementations
	   of similar features, and the user selects which implementation to
        use
	3) Perl modules PM uses GPLLib to implement Iface
	4) Perl program P is under a GPL-incompatible license

Question:
    Is is permissible for P to use PM through Iface?


I argue "yes" because I don't see how P could _possibly_ be held to be 
a derived worked of GPLLib, and thus is not subject to the GPLs 
restrictions.

I further argue that if the answer is "no", there is no good reason to 
say changing the language from perl to shell script should matter, and 
thus no GPL-incompatibly licensed program can use GNU grep, ls, etc.