On 31/08/2012, at 6:13 AM, john skaller wrote: > > On 31/08/2012, at 4:15 AM, Stavros Macrakis wrote: > >> On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 1:33 AM, john skaller >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> On 30/08/2012, at 3:13 PM, Bisht, Pradeep wrote: >>> ... Can I link judy to my program statically ? ... >> >> ...Technically if you do your program is LGPL too.... >> >> You are mistaken. Though the linked program is a "derived work" of the LGPL >> code (*), Pradeep's code does not have to be released under the LGPL. > > I am not mistaken, you just misread my comments. > By "program" I meant binary executable. Thought that was clear.
Actually, GPL and LGPL are fraught with legal difficulties. They're bad licences because they try to make logically unsustainable distinctions .. although its not clear a naive judge would agree. In theory, when you compile your C source the resulting object file is a derived work because you included an LGPL header file (in fact the pre-processed C code is also a derived work: macro expansions and header file inclusions are derivations). If instead you copy the interface specification, your source is a derived work. However if you merely read the specification and write your own interface based on the intellectual content, that is NOT a derived work. The API itself is not copyrightable, established for US domain at least by the very recent Google vs. Oracle in respect of Google using Java library APIs in Android. For that reason I have code which uses GMP, but I wrote the interface (in Felix code) from the specs, rather than mechanically deriving it: my interface is not a derived work and so is unencumbered. I also distribute Judy with my product. Technically the claim that the product is FFAU is incorrect. As a whole, it is FFAU, but each part has a separate licence. This is the way it works for "compendium" products that are aggregations rather than derivations. The best known example of that is Linux distros: they can include GPL'd works without themselves being GPL. The individual component remains GPL. So we have the ludicrous situation where you can distribute non GPL code containing a header file which is GPL, and all is OK, but if you physically copy the header file into one of your files, that file is now GPL -- despite the two encodings being logically identical. Similarly, you can distribute your code plus some other GPL'd code and as long as the client compiles and links it into a program there's no breach of licence. But if you do that, and distribute the result, you're breaching the licence. I know of commercial companies that actually take the sources to the client's place and do the building there for just this reason. The whole concept of intellectual property is rubbish. It is nonsense in the modern world. IMHO of course :) -- john skaller [email protected] http://felix-lang.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Judy-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/judy-devel
