> > Anyway, there is boochs hanging around since several
> years... So the emu
> > availability isn't an issue at all.
>
> Bochs is commercial software (although the source is available).
> While this might change in the near future, it will change to GPL
> AFAIK, so we can't use it in Wine anyway ...
Well Wine's license is (or will be with the license change) compatible
with GPL, so it not a problem since legally the object code and indeed
even the source code can be "relicensed" to GPL during link.
Of course any WineLib application will have to be under a GPL
compatible license to satisfy the GPL.
This is rather absurd since it means that the comming version of Corel
Office
(which uses a PE binary) could be legally run under a non-x86 Wine using
Booch,
but version after that will use WineLib can't legally be linked with a
non-x86
WineLib using Booch. :-)
The reason for this AFAICS is that the GPL seems to think that there is a
difference between linking and running an application. While there
is a difference in some meaning it becomes very thin when the
application is some sort of an emulator, which by the way
the defintion for is rather vague too.
Compare with the DMCA that has been used against DeCSS.
This has as I see it the same problem concerning the
difference between accessing and copying. Copying
is protected by fair use, accessing is not...
The only real way as I see to differ between them (in both case)
is the intent by which something was done.
However in the case of GPL trying to judge intent mean that
the copyright holder would try limit how an application is used
which is beyond the scope of copyright law IIRC.
As for DMCA and DeCSS judging intent for a tool is
rather strange too, since regardless of the makers
intent, someone with a different intent could make
a similar tool.
Sigh, I'm glad I'm not a lawyer. :-)
