Anthony DeRobertis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Given: > 1) Library GPLLib is under the GPL > 2) Perl module Iface provides an interface to various implementations > of similar features, and the user selects which implementation to > use > 3) Perl modules PM uses GPLLib to implement Iface > 4) Perl program P is under a GPL-incompatible license > > Question: > Is is permissible for P to use PM through Iface?
Yes, of course, because the GPL doesn't restrict use! > I argue "yes" because I don't see how P could _possibly_ be held to be > a derived worked of GPLLib, and thus is not subject to the GPLs > restrictions. P is not a derived work of GPLLib, but P+GPLLib is likely to be a derived work of GPLLib, in which case it is not allowed to distribute them together. However, you could certainly distribute P on its own if you could reasonably claim that P is useful without GPLLib. > I further argue that if the answer is "no", there is no good reason to > say changing the language from perl to shell script should matter, and > thus no GPL-incompatibly licensed program can use GNU grep, ls, etc. There are other implementations of grep, ls, etc, so it would certainly be all right to distribute the GPL-incompatible shell script on its own. Debian would distribute the shell script with GNU grep, ls, etc, so you'd have to find another argument why the script is a separate work from grep, ls, etc, which is probably doable if the script makes relatively minor use of grep, etc to do something independently interesting, but would be a bit harder if the script implements a graphical interface to grep. That's how I see it, anyway. Edmund
