On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 03:14:56PM +1200, Peter Gutmann wrote: > Lionel Elie Mamane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >>On Mon, Sep 05, 2005 at 10:14:41PM +0200, Alon Bar-Lev wrote:
>>> Since your GPLed program does not contain any other licensed code it is >>> still GPLed... >>> The same goes with GPLed licensed program that loads PKCS#11 >>> module... >>Not unless that PKCS#11 module "is normally distributed with the major >>components of the operating system". (Assuming here that the PKCS#11 module >>would is a library that GnuPG would be dlopen.) > PKCS #11 is a device driver without which it's impossible to use > critical (to the application) hardware. If you take this > interpretation then GPG already violates it because it ends up using > all manner of components (RAID drivers, ATI/nVidia video drivers, > PC/SC drivers, etc) that aren't distributed as part of the OS. GnuPG doesn't *link* to RAID drivers or video drivers. They don't end up "running linked together in a shared address space". They communicate over syscalls or sockets; mechanisms that are well-known as to be "GPL-safe" (as long as the coupling between them isn't too tight). See http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation . On the other hand, some people interpret the GPL in a way saying that if a library implements a "standard" ABI, then one can link GPL software to it. <shrug> I think it is a good idea to stick to the copyright holder's interpretation. > In fact if you wanted to go reductio ad absurdum even kernel32.dll > is excluded because the hotfixes that are constantly applied to it > aren't "normally distributed with the system components" - they're a > special download. Do I have to answer that? > On the other hand using a particular interpretation of the GPL in > order to make it impossible for GPG to be able to support widespread > smart cards and crypto hardware is a great example of cutting off > your nose to spite your face. That's a choice for the copyright holder to make. -- Lionel _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
