On Oct 10, 5:41 pm, "Chris Thomasson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I read that as any product that links with a GPL'd library has to be free > software. That's a commonly-made but nonsensical claim. That could only be true if a linker could create a derivative work. That could only be true if a linker could create a new work (since a derivative work is a new work, distinct from the work it is derivative of). But a linker has no creativity, it's purely a mechanical process. It can't create a new work, so it can't create a new derivative work. If you take two works, A and B, and feed them into a linker, all you can get out is A and B, perhaps combined with each other and bits of the linker. If you could get a new work that way, the linker would be entitled to copyright on the new work (since it made it), which is nonsensical. DS _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
