Dear Sean, You raise a number of questions; let me address them one by one.
On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 09:18:43PM -0400, Sean E. Russell via RT wrote: > Specifically, is a non-executable data file GPL-able? I do not believe > so. The GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) can be used for any work that is (a) copyrightable and (b) for which the concept of "source code" is clearly defined. So, I'm afraid there is no easy answer to your question: it varies from one type of data to the next. However, there are certainly plenty of examples of data which could be licensed under the GNU GPL. > But, more generally, can a commercial product use the output of a GPL > program? Yes; except in very rare cases, the GNU GPL makes no claim to the copyright of the output of a program. This is covered in detail in our GPL FAQ, at <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanIUseGPLToolsForNF>. > Can a commercial product /run/ a GPL program and use the output? This depends upon how the proprietary program and the program under the GNU GPL interact. If one program uses code released under the GNU GPL in such a way as to constitute "work based on the Program," it too must be released under the terms of the GNU GPL; as such, such interaction is not permissible in proprietary programs. There are few hard criteria for determining whether a piece of software is a work based on another program; again, this is discussed further at <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLInProprietarySystem>. > Can a non-GPL program read a data file for a GPL program, and use the > data? This depends upon the license of the data itself. If the data were licensed under the GNU GPL (assuming that it could be, as explained earlier), the conditions for use of such data would be similar to those of combining two programs discussed above. I hope this answers your question. Please mail <licensing at gnu.org> with any other license-related concerns; they are dedicated to answering such inquiries. Please note that this is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, please consult a lawyer. Best regards, -- Brett Smith, Free Software Foundation Become a card-carrying member of FSF: http://member.fsf.org/ Help support our work for FSF and the GNU project: http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=fsfinfo
