Paul Howarth wrote:
> What is it that is GPL'ed in this example? If a developer wants to use
> someone else's GPLed code in their product (and distribute it), they
> must GPL their product too. If they don't want to use anyone else's
> GPL'ed code, they don't.
"Use" is too loose here. You can 'use' Linux on your device, the GNU
libc, all kinds of coreutils stuff, etc, etc, and your code can be a
proprietary usermode app that can even link to LGPL'd libraries, and you
will NOT have to "GPL your product", ie, your proprietary app sources.
You only have to pass on the sources for the stuff that YOU got for free
in such a case.
The specific threshold where it changes is linking in GPL code for
userspace, and effectively it seems any kernelmode code unless you can
get Linux and the other Linux contributors to turn a blind eye or are
willing to risk a future battle over it.
But userspace apps only using LGPL stuff is a huge field with plenty of
critical libs to call on, look:
# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME} %{LICENSE}\n" | grep LGPL | sort | uniq
-Andy
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