On Wed, 2006-01-18 at 21:56 -0800, jdow wrote: > From: "Erwin Rol" <mailinglists@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > > > On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 20:57 -0700, David G. Miller (aka DaveAtFraud) > > wrote: > >> jdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > >> > >> > From: "Jeff Vian" <jvian10@xxxxxxxxxxx> > >> > > >> >> On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 21:40 +0000, Andy Green wrote: > >> >> > > > >> Up until recently I worked for a company that developed and marketed a > >> closed source, Linux based, network monitoring product > >> (http://www.vericept.com). The company lawyers saw no problem with us > >> building and selling a closed source product that included calls to a > >> variety of GPLed and LGPLed libraries. As has been extensively > >> discussed over at Groklaw (http://www.groklaw.net) and elsewhere on the > >> 'net, headers and interfaces are *not* protectable elements under > >> copyright law. The only way the GPL kicks (via copyright law) in is if > >> you actually modify executable GPLed code for your product. At worst, > >> you would then need to make only these changes to the GPLed code > >> available as source (there's also nothing that says the maintainer has > >> to accept your changes; just publishing them is sufficient). > > > > The GPL kicks in if you distribute your product. If your program needs a > > GPL library the program is a derived work from that library and so if > > you distribute that program you have to distribute it in a GPL > > compatible way (for example by putting the program under the GPL). > > > > If you have a LGPL library the use of that library is not seen as a > > derived work and hence you are free to choose the license for your > > program. > > What happens if I discover, after months of development, that some > LGPLed library I used actually itself uses a GPLed library and was > mis-licensed? I'm toast. What happens if a closed source library you are using contains GPL'ed code? You are toast. > This seems to me to be too big a risk for > me to spend much of any time trying to make a living off GPL tainted > software. Then you'd probably be better off not using Linux, OSX or one of the BSDs. All of them heavily use and depend upon GPL'ed SW. > I might try to make a reputation with it. But I'd not expect > it to be the sole source of money to keep my computers powered let > alone keep me powered. I seems to me as if you haven't understood the GPL and its importance to OpenSource and Linux in particular. Though you might not want to acknowledge it, without the GPL you wouldn't have Linux, and we all would be paying €€€€ fees for each piece of SW we want to use. Ralf
