Re: GPLed firmware flasher ...

[Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>]

Michael Below writes:

> Humberto Massa <humberto.massa@almg.gov.br> writes:
> 
> > Despite the letter of the GPL and its post-amble, "linking", generally
> > construed as "stitching together (normally executable) object (as
> > opposed to source) files and resolving fixups so the result is an
> > executable file" does NOT make a derivative work. Derivative works are
> > made when you have intelligent *transformation* of the original
> > work. Linking is not intelligent -- much au contraire, it's fully
> > automatic.
> 
> Hm. So the LGPL is completely useless in practice?
> 
> I understand that the GPL has a rather broad approach. 

It is not necessarily so clear.  The FSF argues that a program's use
of an API, at least when there is only one implementation, makes it a
derived work of the program that implements the API.  This is broadly
similar to how re-using a fictional character from one literary work
makes the re-use a derivative of the original.  Others disagree with
the FSF's position.  Until it is specifically addressed in a court
that matters to you, you (or a lawyer you retain) will have to
interpret the issue for your situation.

I believe the general practice within Debian is to be conservative and
use the FSF's interpretation, in part because the FSF wrote the GPL.

Michael Poole