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Yes, as I said the issue are slightly different. My question is: what legal basis does the developer of a GPL library have to sue somebody who released a progra
by anon1385 16y ago
Yes, as I said the issue are slightly different. My question is: what legal basis does the developer of a GPL library have to sue somebody who released a program linked with that library. If the two only come together to form a combined work on the users machine, at the users command, then how does the GPL apply to me, the distributor of the the non-GPL program? I am not distributing a combined or derivative work. At most I am using the headers and distributing the symbol names, which are not covered by copyright. When I make no copies, how does copyright law affect me?
If the headers were covered by copyright, that would have provided a way for a developer to prevent use of their GPL library by non-GPL programs.
- zerohp 16y agoThere are different opinions on this, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Link...
- caf 16y agoYour argument applies in the case where you do not distribute the GPL'd library - as zerohp points out, opinions differ on this case, and it hinges on whether your compiled program would be considered a "derivative work". However, if you distribute the GPL'd library, then it's a lot more clear-cut. "Derivative work" doesn't enter into it anymore - to distribute the GPL'd library itself you must have a license to do so. If the license you're relying on there is the GPL, you must abide by its terms, including those about linking.