On Tue, Nov 02, 2004 at 11:12:11PM +0100, Måns Rullgård wrote: > > If Mr Wontshare's client doesn't work without your software, this is > > what I call a derivative work. Whether it is linked to it using ELF or > > not is irrelevant. > > Mr. Wontshare's program *uses* the GPL program, but isn't derived from > it. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation.
To quote that answer: What constitutes combining two parts into one program? This is a legal question, which ultimately judges will decide. We believe that a proper criterion depends both on the mechanism of communication (exec, pipes, rpc, function calls within a shared address space, etc.) and the semantics of the communication (what kinds of information are interchanged). My question was essentially, does the scenario I outlined constitute combining two parts into one. I believe the answer should be yes. However, IANAL and I thought FSF lawyes frequent debian-legal (?) might be able to tell me what a judge would likely think. > Further, consider what would happen if someone else created an > application with an interface compatible with the OP's program. Would > Mr. Wontshare's program then become a derivative this program as well? > A program compatible with the OP's could even be written before Mr. > Wontshare writes his. Which one is it then derived from? The only > consistent answer is that it is not derived at all. Or else, his is a derivative work of whichever one he makes use of. If he ships with one of them, his intention seems to be clear. I don't see how that is logically inconsistent. -- Wesley W. Terpstra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
