[ale] OT: GPL Question

[Fulton Green]

On Fri, Aug 30, 2002 at 06:28:24PM -0400, Jeffrey B. Layton wrote:
> Joseph A. Knapka wrote:
> >
(snip)
> >You all may recall that a couple of months ago I posed
> >the following hypothetical:
> >
> >  I've got a commercial, closed-source application server,
> >  WhizBangAppServer, for which a dynamic-loading API for
> >  plugins is defined. I write a plugin that honors that API
> >  and works under WhizBangAppServer. I then load that
> >  plugin into a GPL'd clone appserver that implements the
> >  same plugin API. Is my plugin now encumbered by the GPL?
> >
> >Someone said, "No", and gave some good reasons. But the
> >dialogue between Asay and Stallman in the article in
> >question clearly indicates that Stallman *wants* my
> >code to be encumbered - he thinks that dynamically
> >linking to GPL'd code constitutes a derivative work,
> >and even that *running as a process on a GPL'd OS
> >constitutes a derivative work* !!! Further, he thinks
> >that all Linux kernel modules should be subject to
> >the GPL on the same grounds (even though Linus has
> >disavowed that interpretation).

Technologically, it sounds as if there's a disconnect in philosophy between
RMS and everyone else w/r/t dynamically binding a (potentially) non-GPL'd
module to a GPL'd container. This is definitely the case with Linux modules.
Other containers use either a dual-license approach or a less-restrictive
license such as the Apache license for the Jakarta Tomcat JSP/servlet
engine, the LGPL for the JBoss EJB container or the Mozilla Public License
for the Mozilla plug-in infrastructure.

>    In the meantime, let me ask a related question. I really like
> to use Nedit (www.nedit.org) as me editor. However, Nedit is
> GPL. Does that mean that anything I produce, such as source
> code, using Nedit is covered under GPL? Anyone?

If there are no other legal restrictions, the GPL typically doesn't cover
the documents/files that the GPL'd program reads in or writes out. The
GIMP, for example, doesn't dictate that any graphics you create with it be
GPL'd (or, more to the point, FDL'd).

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