'GPL encumbrance problems'

[Mike McCarty]

Andy Green wrote:
> Mike McCarty wrote:
> 
> 
>>No, not even MicroSoft says that you can't call open() without
>>making your code theirs. In fact, no one does that except GPL.
>>
>>(I'm not claiming that open() is GPL, it might be LGPL, but
> 
> 
> Your complaints in the parent post do in fact seem to rely on open()
> being in a GPL'd library: but Standard C library open() is in glibc
> which is LGPL.

No, they do not. As I have pointed out, clauses 5 and 6 of even LGPL
force any *other* libraries I might link with to be distributed in
a form which can be reverse engineered and repaired by the end
user.

[snip]

>>even LGPL is so confusing to read that I'm not sure what
>>it means, exactly, and it certainly has some scary language.)
> 
> 
> Please read what you wrote above and reconsider if you should be
> lecturing the list on this.

I think that, until you read clauses 5 and 6 and digest them, you
have a way to go. I find that LGPL is quite intrusive
enough. I believe that LGPL makes claims which possibly would not
hold up in court. IANAL, and I stated above that I find LGPL
somewhat confusing to read, because I keep thinking "they can't
really make that hold up, can they?". But I certainly am capable
of understanding what the claims themselves seem to mean.

In particular, several years ago (2001 or so) I participated in the
system requirements and system design of some cutting edge telephony
equipment (VOIP stuff) and we considered whether we could use
Linux and some GPL and LGPL stuff in our equipment, and after
spending weeks reading this stuff, and talking with lawyers,
we concluded that we could not.

So Linux went by the wayside, and we used Solaris.

So, on careful reconsideration, yes, I consider that I am
probably more competent to lecture on this matter than
you are, since you seem not actually to have read the LGPL.

But, IANAL.

Mike
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