>>>>> On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 14:49:40 +0100 (BST), Alan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> said:
Alan> On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Kern Sibbald wrote: >>> Even the cases above, what's happened is that the companies concerned have >>> been forced to release the sourcecode for modifications to GCC, >>> modifications to Linux and Linux device drivers, but thay have NOT been >>> forced to give up the proprietary software which is the real gem in their >>> crown. >> >> This is exactly what I was referring to. If you play by the rules, those >> kinds of use of GPL require release of your source. Alan> Reread what I wrote. Alan> The cases required that GPL declarations and source releaes be made for Alan> modified bits of GPL code, such as kernel, busybox - and in one case a Alan> Broadcom wireless device driver which was based on another wlan driver, Alan> plus modifications that Broadcaom had made to GCC (normal GCC wouldn't Alan> compile the code Broadcom eventually divulged until it was noticed the GCC Alan> had been modified) Alan> HOWEVER, proprietary code sitting on top of the GPL code was not forced Alan> into GPL, even by vector of including standard libraries (If someone Alan> really doesn't want to risk it they can always go out and buy Intel's CC Alan> instead of usding GCC, etc. The Intel compiler is substantially more Alan> efficient than gcc anyway....) Alan> GPL doesn't taint everything it touches, just items which Alan> include GPL code (which does NOT include header files). Alan> Bacula including mysql client code which may include OpenSSL code doesn't Alan> force OpenSSL or the mysql code into GPL, or any other included libraries Alan> for that matter. Alan> Proprietary code including lesser GPL (lGPL) libraries is not forced into Alan> the GPL either. Quite correct, but isn't there a common problem is that something is GPL but you want to use a small part of it as a library? E.g. suppose you have written a non-trivial non-GPL data analysis tool with plugins for different input formats. Now if you want to add a plugin for Bacula volumes, but you won't be able to use any of the Bacula volume reading code because it will taint your whole tool with the GPL, even though you are not really make a "derived work" of Bacula (just a small part of it that could have been a library). __Martin ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
