OK, so GPL says you can:
1) copy/distribute verbatim source code under GPL
2) modify/copy/distribute source code and relicense under GPL
parts of distribution that are not derived from original
are not covered under this license.
GPL is not intent on claiming rights to your works.
Aggregation of another software with GPL'd software
does not require all software be GPL.
3) copy/distribute original or modified(from 2) forms of program
in object or executable form if you provide the source code.
you must license it same as 1) or 2) above.
So, part 2 says parts that are not derived from GPL code do not
have to be GPL licensed.
So, I write a chunk of code that works with some GPL software.
I compile GPL code and my code and get aggregated binaries,
aggregated in memory.
(2) also says aggregation does not require GPL'ing.
I link our binaries together, to create an actual usable program,
and that invokes the "derived work" clause that says the
executable is derived, therefore my aggregated source code
must be GPL'd?
and (2) also says it is not the intent of the GPL to make claims
to someone else's work?
but, if I want my non-GPL software to use GPL'd software,
I can't ship an executable? or I have to relicense it as GPL?
yet the only way anyone can use my code, or use GPL'd code,
is to link it, which is actually a derived work?
so, I have to ship my source code aggregated with some GPL'd
source code, and throw in a build script so the user can
actually use any of it, and make an executable (derive).
What exactly was the point of making linking special?
and if linking is a derived work, reserved strictly to the author,
does that mean that Microsoft can come up with a
Microsoft Open License (MOL) where they release source code,
but you can only link it with unmodified MOL software?
i.e. you can look at it, but you can never USE it?
I don't see any advantage for the GPL to make linking a
derived work (since a build script run by the user gets around it anyway),
and I see it as something that someone else could abuse
with legal loopholes if they so wanted to.
Greg
--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
