Re: Eclipse 3.0 Running ILLEGALY on Kaffe
On Thu, 2005-13-01 at 19:19 +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 08:02:57PM +0100, M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> > > Derivation is something that happens when you *write* the program. Not
> > > when you build it.
> >
> > How many times does it have to be stated that *using* an API does not
> > form a derivative work of *any* implementation of the API?
>
> More irrelevancy. Using an API is just a method for utilising part of
> another work. It may or may not be a derivative. This is just a
> variation on the 'linker' noise.
Maybe, but then you should have your own, non-GPLed implementation of
these APIs agains which you're compiling your code. Ie. glibc has its
own collection of kernel headers.
Now, what we observe here, is that a GPL-incompatible code is
explicitely compiled agains headers (.class files for that matter)
that are GPLed.
Even according to Linus such "use" is not permitted
http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2003/Dec/1042.html
It seems though you could compile your code against another set of
headers (.class files), that does not cause license conflict and it
would be OK.
We do not have to push interpretation of GPL as far as to claim
copyrightability of the interfaces. Using GPLed implementation of
such interface to create your work does however create a derivative
work.
Grzegorz B. Prokopski
--
Grzegorz B. Prokopski <gadek@sablevm.org>
SableVM - Free, LGPL'ed Java VM http://sablevm.org
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