[Bug 207761] Review Request: xpdf - A PDF file viewer for the X Window System

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Summary: Review Request: xpdf - A PDF file viewer for the X Window System


https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=207761





------- Additional Comments From pertusus at free.fr  2006-09-25 15:48 EST -------
Linking together is not the only reason why GPL and GPL-incompatible
soft cannot cooperate. They shouldn't be in the same 'container'. 
Quoting the GPL:

  b)  You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, 
  that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the 
  Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no 
  charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

So, for example it could be argued that xpdf-japanese-2004-jul-27.tar.gz
contains the GPL-licenced encoding files, and therefore cause the
files in CMap, distributed alongside to be licenced under the GPL 
which is not possible.

It is also explained here:
 
  If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, 
  and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in 
  themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those 
  sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you 
  distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based 
  on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of 
  this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the 
  entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote 
  it.

The first sentence, in my opinion describes what are the CMap files, 
"independent and separate works in themselves", so the GPL don't apply
to them. However, as explained in the second sentence, "when you 
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based 
on the Program", which is the case for CMap files bundled together with
encoding files covered by the GPL, "the distribution of the whole must 
be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees 
extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless 
of who wrote it." Since the CMap cannot be distributed under the GPL,
we have somewhere a licence violation.

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