Michael Below writes: > Humberto Massa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Despite the letter of the GPL and its post-amble, "linking", generally > > construed as "stitching together (normally executable) object (as > > opposed to source) files and resolving fixups so the result is an > > executable file" does NOT make a derivative work. Derivative works are > > made when you have intelligent *transformation* of the original > > work. Linking is not intelligent -- much au contraire, it's fully > > automatic. > > Hm. So the LGPL is completely useless in practice? > > I understand that the GPL has a rather broad approach.
It is not necessarily so clear. The FSF argues that a program's use of an API, at least when there is only one implementation, makes it a derived work of the program that implements the API. This is broadly similar to how re-using a fictional character from one literary work makes the re-use a derivative of the original. Others disagree with the FSF's position. Until it is specifically addressed in a court that matters to you, you (or a lawyer you retain) will have to interpret the issue for your situation. I believe the general practice within Debian is to be conservative and use the FSF's interpretation, in part because the FSF wrote the GPL. Michael Poole -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
