'GPL encumbrance problems' (jdow)

[Mike McCarty]

jdow wrote:
> From: "Mike McCarty" <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net>
> 
>> John Summerfied wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> If I employ a BSD-style licence, then you can choose to use a similar 
>>> licence yourself, to use a proprietary licence and to not provide 
>>> your source, or even to distribute _your_ software, even as a derived 
>>> work, under the terms of the GPL.
>>>
>>> If, on another hand, I grant you use under the terms of the GPL, then 
>>> you are still free to write your software, but if you link your 
>>> program with mine (isn't that what the headers are for?), then any 
>>> distribution you do must be under the terms of the GPL, and you must 
>>> (if asked) produce the source on demand.
>>
>>
>> AFAIK, this has not been tested in court, and ISTR hearing that there is
>> court precedent that linking a program with a library does
>> not (LGPL language notwithstanding) create a "derived work".
> 
> 
> It does, however, mean that you must abide by the terms of use and
> distribution for the library. The new terms in GPL3 make it EXTREMELY

What I intended my comment to mean was... A COURT could decide that
this particular language in the LGPL is NONENFORCEABLE and WITHOUT
EFFECT, and that I recall having heard that there are similar
cases which have gone against the position the LGPL takes. If that
is true, then linking does *not* create a derived work, and the
LGPL cannot prevent people from distributing linked programs at
all.

> unlikely that life will go on as before in the GPL world. There will
> be no further linked in video drivers in precompiled form, for example.
> Wording in GPL3 prohibits this. So either Linux does not adopt GPL3 and
> refuses to include any GPL3 code or Linux dies for lack of specialized
> driver support. RMS is, predictably, a silly turd.

Well, I haven't read GPL3, so I can't comment on that. Based on
email I exchanged with him in 1984/1985 or so, RS is very odd
indeed, but I wouldn't use the four letter word you did.

Mike
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