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Re: GPL, yet again. (The kernel is a lot like a shared library)



On Tue, Sep 13, 2005 at 04:06:00AM +0200, Claus F?rber wrote:
> Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> schrieb/wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 05:52:00PM +0200, Claus F?rber wrote:
> >> So one of the assumptions made above is wrong.
> 
> > The one where you assumed that dynamic linking was relevent. I've been
> > saying that all along.
> 
> You were also saying that C is "probably" a derivative of O:
> | I do not know how a program that really used openssl, calling its
> | functions, could avoid being a derivative. I can't rule it out but
> 
> (The typical case for dynamic linking is that there are function calls.)
> 
> For a high-level argumentation like mine, it does not matter whether the
> legal link between C and O is created by dynamic linking, incorporating
> "function calls", or anything else, the result is always the same:
> 
> If O can be replaced by M, the assumption that B/C is a derivative of O,
> must be wrong.

The difference is that when you talk about dynamic linking, the
'replacement' means fiddling with linker options or package
dependencies. It is indeed nonsense to conclude that doing these
things would change the copyright status of the program using the
libraries.

When you talk about writing programs, 'replacement' means rewriting
parts of it. I don't think anybody here is going to find it difficult
to believe that rewriting the program to use M instead of O would
change the copyright status of the program you are rewriting parts of.

Your entire argument is based on the fact that it's nonsense for
dynamic linking because replacing one external run-time library with
another shouldn't change the copyright status of the program using
it. Yes, it's nonsense - but you're the one who introduced it. The
introduction of dynamic linking was the mistaken assumption.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
 `. `'                          |
   `-             -><-          |

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