Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com> writes:
[large discussion of C snipped out]
In the case of Java, the binding is even looser. A class might contain references to other classes which the JVM is free to look for anywhere it pleases. AFAIK, Eclipse uses only the standard Java API as published by Sun, and will run equally well with any implementation of said interface.Great -- which implementation does Debian ship it with? That's all that really matters.
I disagree that it's all that matters. It also matters whether the implementation that Debian ships actually puts any restrictions on the license on its data, or whether it doesn't. Kaffe, being an interpreter, does not, afaict:
"When the interpreter just interprets a language, the answer is no. The interpreted program, to the interpreter, is just data; a free software license like the GPL, based on copyright law, cannot limit what data you use the interpreter on. You can run it on any data (interpreted program), any way you like, and there are no requirements about licensing that data to anyone."[1]
As the GPL of the interpreter does not place any restrictions on the data, the incompatibility of intepreter's GPL and data's CPL does not matter, as the data never becomes limited by the GPL and the license conflict never happens.
cheers, dalibor topic [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL