[ale] A licensing question...

[Michael D. Hirsch]

On Saturday 25 January 2003 07:26 pm, John Wells wrote:
> Bob,
>
> My main concern was using script libraries that were GPL'd.  For
> example, if there was a php class library (all just scripts) that was
> called FooBarLib.
>
> If I use any of the classes from FooBarLib in my script, say by
> including the script file, then creating an object of one of the classes
> and invoking a method, then my script has to become GPL'd.
>
> From the GPL faq:
>
> "Another similar and very common case is to provide libraries with the
> interpreter which are themselves interpreted. For instance, Perl comes
> with many Perl modules, and a Java implementation comes with many Java
> classes. These libraries and the programs that call them are always
> dynamically linked together.
>
> A consequence is that if you choose to use GPL'd Perl modules or Java
> classes in your program, you must release the program in a
> GPL-compatible way, regardless of the license used in the Perl or Java
> interpreter that the combined Perl or Java program will run on. "

There is currently a bit of controversy over this.  When the GPL was 
written there was no such thing as shared libs.  So the act of linking 
meant that the library and your code was made into a single file--glearly 
a derivative work.  The LGPL was written to allow this.

There have been several articles in recent months interpreting the GPL to 
allow dynamic linking of proprietary code with GPLed libraries.  If you 
don't allow this you end up with a variety of legal conundroms like what 
happens if someone writes a GPLed library that replaces some proprietary 
library that you linked to--is your code now GPLed? Basically the GPL is 
vague on dynamic linking, and there are serious problems with trying to 
disallow it.

OTOH, RMS definitely believes that dynamic linking is not allowed.

On the far extreme is MySQL's interpretation of the GPL.  They claim that 
running a program that interacts with their GPLed MySQL server is "linked" 
with their server and must be GPLed.  I don't think that has been tested 
in court, and I don't even think it would hold up in court, but there it 
is.

Michael
_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale