David Kastrup wrote:
An executable image stored in parts is still an executable image. Just because the assembly happens on-demand does not change the intent. As long as there is no conceivable use without the (automatic and planned) assembly, the exact time frame of the assembly is not really relevant.
You keep talking about intent, but even if that mattered, which it does not, US copyright law specifically declares the copying needed to execute a program on a machine to be non-infringing. But there is no such thing as prohibiting the copying of a work due to "future intent to create a collective work using that work plus other copyrighted elements". If you would just step back a moment from your ridiculous need to find GPL violations where they cannot possibly exist, you would see for yourself how nonsensical that sounds. Copyright inheres to a specific work, that thing that you can register with the copyright office if you choose. It is that specific work which must contain copies of GPLed elements if the viral nature of the GPL is to apply to the work as a whole. Nothing else counts, no matter how that may bother you. Further, you speak of "an executable stored in parts". But the fundamental aspect that you erroneously choose to disregard is that some of those parts, namely the GPL-copyrighted dynamic libraries, are not being copied by the author of the program, nor are they being distributed along with the program. Those parts are separately present on the machine which will execute the program, and any copying that occurs during the execution is specifically declared non-infringing by US copyright law. And further yet, directions on how to copy and instructions to do so are not themselves copies subject to the copyright of the work which is the target of the instructions. If I transmit the text "Upon receipt, photocopy the full text of the Harry Potter novels." that text does not fall under J.K. Rowling's copyright. If the recipient chooses to obey the directions, it is he who violates J.K. Rowling's copyright, not I. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
