On 05 April 2006 13:57, Colm O' Flaherty wrote:
> Theres an interesting discussion going on as to whether Microchip Inc is
> allowed by the GPL to licence linker scripts and some other scripts (their
> code, not based on a GPL'ed code) when these scripts are all distributed as
> part of the MPLAB C30, which is a C compiler, based on the GNU CC (gcc) 3.3,
> which obviously *is* covered by the GPL.
>
> Can someone knowledgeable cut to the chase and put us right on what the
> situation is in this case? How about Richard Stallman? Is he available?
> (Just kidding, but it would be nice to hear from the man himself).
>
> http://www.linuxhacker.org/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/1
>
> Thanks,
>
> Colm
A linker script is source code, input to the linker in the same fashion as a
.C file is source code input to the compiler. Hence it is not subject to the
GPL (unless it constitutes a derived work from an original GPL'd linker
script).
I don't know what license applies to the built-in and default linker scripts
that a binutils compilation generates, so in the lack of any precise
information I would advise to assume the GPL covers them by default, since
they are derived from templates in the binutils source itself.
However if Microchip have written their own entirely new linker scripts,
they hold the copyright and may license them however they please.
PS: IANARMS!
cheers,
DaveK
--
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....
