DT> I heard that you were considering a proprietary executable compression DT> scheme for FreeDOS. could you explain 'proprietary' ?
is everything non-GPL 'proprietary' ? the compressor is available to everyone, but simply does not allow free distribution of compressed executables, if used comercially. DT> I'm just writing to let you know the licensing and DT> freedom implications of this. DT> The compressor rewrites an executable (in the FreeDOS case, one under DT> the GPL), inserting decompression code. This creates a derivative work DT> of the GPL software, so the decompression code at least would need to be DT> under the GPL. could you explain the difference between a compiler and compressor ? both take file X as input and produce Y as output. I would agree, if I take some source GPL-X, insert some *source* which is only compilable with my proprietary compiler (not available to the general public), and that (to meet GPL requirements), and claim to be GPL-compatible. IMO if I insert some code that is only compilable with some 20000$ supercompiler (that IS available, though), meets GPL requirements. GPL is a SOURCE license, not an EXECUTABLE one. DT> The copyright holders of FreeDOS could write an exception to allow DT> non-GPL decompressor code. In order to do this, all copyright holders DT> would have to agree. nice lawyers nonsense. DT> This would solve the licensing problem, but the DT> output of the decompressor would not be Free Software. true. 'not to distributed comercially'. DT> So, I hope you DT> won't choose to use a non-free executable compressor. so I MAY COMPILE* some GPL code with the non-free MSVC compiler and linker, but MAY NOT use option /EXEPACK ? may be bill is right with his 'open source is a virus' tom ------------------------------------------------------- The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004 Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA. http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
