On Sep 4, 2004, at 07:55, Florian Weimer wrote:
That sounds quite like "plac[ing] restrictions on other software that
is distributed along with the licensed software."
If curl-ssl is linked to GPLed programs by default, it's not mere
aggregation.
But it's not linked to the programs. The programs would, of course,
Build-Depend on libcurl and Build-Conflicts with libcurl-ssl. So the
programs were dynamically linked to libcurl-nossl (or libcurl-gnutls,
or whatever).
We then distribute source under the terms of the GPL:
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the
work for making modifications to it. For an executable work,
complete source code means all the source code for all modules
it contains, plus any associated interface definition files,
plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation
of the executable.
The binary of FOO we redistribute contains the module FOO, of course,
and maybe the module libcurl-nossl. We distribute the source to those
under GPL 3(a).
If libcurl-ssl happens to be installed by default, how does that matter
then? OpenSSL is not a module of FOO because /FOO was compiled without
it/.
PS: the DFSG says nothing of mere aggregation, only of 'other software'.