Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

Horst H. von Brand vonbrand at inf.utfsm.cl
Thu Jun 19 16:57:50 UTC 2008


Matthew Saltzman <mjs at clemson.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 19:33 -0300, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> > On Jun 18, 2008, Matthew Saltzman <mjs at clemson.edu> wrote:

[...]

> > > Wait--Alexandre, are you saying that I could take a GPL library and,
> > > say, a CPL[1] library, write a program that links to both libraries to
> > > create new functionality and legally distribute source code or a
> > > statically or dynamically linked executable version of my program
> > > licensed under either the GPL or the CPL?

> > No.  I'm just saying that it's not the GPL that prevents you from
> > distributing it.  It's copyright law.  The GPL merely refrains from
> > granting permission for you to do something that, without such
> > permission from copyright holders, you can't do in the first place.
> 
> OK I see.
> 
> Then can we at least agree that there are sometimes unfortunate
> consequences to the GPL's failure to permit one to share a work
> combining two pieces of *free* software because of relatively minor[1]
> license incompatibilities?

Sure.

> In fact, I think it's arguable that there are sometimes unfortunate
> consequences to the GPL's failure to permit one to share a work that
> makes use of a GPL library and a proprietary library.  I understand some
> authors' desire not to permit that kind of sharing of their work, even
> if I don't necessarily agree with it.  But I also think that there's
> lots of software released under the GPL by authors who don't think
> deeply about license issues and don't really understand the limits of
> what is permitted by the GPL.

Right. But to grant (or not) such permission is the copyright holder's
decision. And it is not up to us to second guess their "real" intention.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria             +56 32 2654239
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile 2340000       Fax:  +56 32 2797513




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