In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
, Alex Belits writes:
>On Sun, 24 Dec 2000, Warner Losh wrote:
>> : This is simply not true -- unless your hardware is the result of
>> : modification of GPL'ed program, something that I don't expect to see any
>> : soon, as so far no hardware ever was GPL'ed in the first place.
>> That is your interpretation. Other lawyers disagree with that
>> interpretation.
> No. This issue was beaten to death multiple times, large amount of
>software was created based on this, and its legality is absolutely
>certain by now.
It has been discussed. It has never been decided in a court. Yes, software
has been built based on this assumption.
On the other hand, British Telecom is suing people for using hyperlinks,
right now, so I don't think it's reasonable to assume that, just because
everyone "knows" something is safe, it's *really* safe.
The FSF has harassed people for shipping a thing which was complete without
a GPL'd library, but *COULD* be linked to a GPL'd library. It didn't get to
a lawsuit, but it could have, and no one can tell us who would have won...
The legality is not "absolutely certain". So far, the GPL has never been
tested in court in *ANY* context; should we assume that this means that,
legally, it's null and void? I wouldn't.
-s
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