Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 21:53:32 +1100, Tim Churches wrote: > > >> Secondly, perhaps you should consider that dynamically linking to a > >> work is creating a derivative work, which most certainly falls under > >> the "modification" clause. > > [snip] > > > I am sorry, but dynamic linking at run-time does not, by any stretch > of > > the imagination, correspond to the definition of "derivative work" > > above. > > I don't have to stretch my imagination even the tiniest bit to see why > program Foo (consisting of code X linked to code Y) is obviously derived > from program Bar consisting of code X on its own.
Steven, My point is that it may well be obvious to *you* that dynamic linking constitutes derivative work, but from the way "derivative work" is explicitly defined in the GPL itself, it doesn't. Look at the language of the GPL: Section 0. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. The key verb is "containing", and I'm sorry, but "link" (or "reference" or "call" or whatever other verb could reasonably used to describe dynamic run-time linking) does not mean the same as "contain". Tim C -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
