Re: does r-cran-afex violate the GPL?

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Sat, Oct 03, 2015 at 07:53:25PM +0200, Jonathon Love wrote:
> On 3/10/2015 10:27 am, Santiago Vila wrote:
> > The way I see it, your package just uses other R packages, but it's
> > not a derived work of them.
> 
> yeah, but by the same logic, i could just "use" a GPL .dll or .so from
> my proprietary application, [...]

Not the same logic, because linking creates an executable which is
considered a derived work of both the program and the library.
(You will notice that neither the GPL or Debian differentiate between
static or dynamic linking).

> But if the semantics of the communication are intimate enough,
> exchanging complex internal data structures, that too could be a basis
> to consider the two parts as combined into a larger program."

That's very interesting but it still does not force a user space
program making a system call to the kernel to be GPL-2, even
if there are "complex internal data structures" involved.

So, the "complex data structures" thing alone may not be the only
criteria.

To have a GPL violation, you need a "derived work".

Speaking about logic, I hope your logic is not that every time a
package Depends on another one you have a derived work of both,
because that's clearly not the case.

BTW: I'm not a lawyer and this is just my opinion. If you still do not
agree, you will have to wait for others to speak.

Thanks.