Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 11:40:12 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, Jeremy Karlson <karlj000@unbc.ca>, Craig Harding <crh@outpost.co.nz>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop Message-ID: <3C1F9B9C.789A155E@mindspring.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20011217222907.028403b0@localhost> <Pine.LNX.4.21.0112180119550.29122-100000@ugrad.unbc.ca> <4.3.2.7.2.20011218095233.028ea920@localhost> <20011218193510.A23697@tisys.org>
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Nils Holland wrote: > Furthermore, I don't currently see a legally or real-world enforcible way > to restirct the output of GPLed software. If I only use some GPLed software > in order to write something down and then print it, I don't think that a > license can force my output to fall under the same license. As such, I > guess that if I wrote myself a C program and compiled it, I don't believe > that any license would serious (legally) be able to require that my output > also falls under the GPL automatically. These are, I think, some weird > theories - at least I have not seen any signs of them being true so far. Right now, there is a library which all compiled programs get linked with in order to obtain the startup code. There is a special exception for this library, but in effect, all programs are linked with this code, with the exception of the standalone programs (boot, etc.), and the kernel. If the license on this code were changed, then anything compiled with the GNU toolchain could come under the influence of the GPL, in a future revision of the compiler, of if someone chose to use the "or newer version" clause of the lciense. That said, I think this is incredibly unlikely, since the people maintaining EGCS and glibc have already said "no" to similar requests regarding the compiler and the "reference implementation" of the C library. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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