FC4 or FC5

[Sean]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:31:37 -0700 (PDT)
BRUCE STANLEY <bruce.stanley at prodigy.net> wrote:

> I keep seeing the term 'derived' used a lot in these GPL discussions.
> 
> Hum, I'm not a lawyer, but as a computer programmer I fail to see how an
> application program that I write could be considered a 'derived' work of
> some generic support library that knows nothing of the logic of my
> application program.
> 
> Here is a dictionary definition definition of derived (I realize that lawyers can
> ever pervert that):
> 
>     formed or developed from something else; not original; "the belief that classes 
>     and organizations are secondary and derived"- John Dewey 
> wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
> 
> How could by application be derived by this definition?  The library routine is
> only there to do a function or to supply data that my program needs.
> 
> My program is not formed from this  GPL library in question.
> 

Well it's really up to the lawyers to decide, so i can only speculate.  It
seems that in the case quoted by Les, the package was found to be a derivative
work, legally.

Sean