Rahul Sundaram wrote:
Do you mean bundled together? You can certainly do that. A copyright
license cannot outright restrict mere bundles of unrelated components.
I mean as described by the GPL - in anything that can be construed as
a derived work containing any GPL'd code. Such a thing can't be
distributed unless GPL terms can apply to the work as a whole.
GPL license does not involve unrelated components. You claimed that a
combination is not possible.
I've never claimed anything about unrelated components. I've only
mentioned Linux and the GPL'd parts of the distribution.
It certainly is. The restrictions on a
copyright license can only apply to code that uses it. Merely combining
components cannot ever be restricted by a copyright license.
You have to define 'components' in an odd way to make that statement.
Aggregating unrelated programs is permitted. Components like library
functions are not. Kernel modules and plugin linkages are questionable.
The FSF position - as taken in the RIPEM case - has been that if a GPL'd
component is necessary for functionality, any program using it must also
be GPL'd even if they aren't distributed together.
The only way a product that includes GPL'd code can
contain any of those things is if someone buys the right to allow
unlimited free redistribution and there is no practical way for many
users to share the cost of that.
Not true as has been indicated many times to you before. Look at
Freespire for example. They have patent licenses and include
proprietary codecs for gratis.
Lots of places do lots of things that are not permitted by the GPL so
I can't comment on whether this is a valid counterexample or not.
It is. Do your basic fact checks before you repeatedly claim things
which are not true.
I'm claiming nothing except what the GPL explicitly states.
> A Linux distribution can definitely include code
with different restrictions from GPL. In fact pretty much all the Linux
distributions do that.
Yes, there are many aggregated programs that have no GPL content at all
and thus do not suffer from its restrictions. That is a very good
thing. However, the kernel is not one of them.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
