In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you write: >On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Martin Schulze wrote: > >> This might look confusing but the situation is different as >> the author of vile is aware of the unfreeness and distributes >> new parts under the GPL. >> >> "the bulk of vile _cannot_ be covered by the GPL due to murky origins and >> previous copyrights. however, the code that i have written (and i suspect >> this is true of contributions made by others as well) was written to be >> published, and to be shared with others. please respect this. see the top >> of main.c for the restrictions put on the original MicroEMACS code upon >> which vile was based." [...] > >I am not a license expert, but from the GPL I understand that if you make >modifications to a program and you put the modifications under GPL, you >have to put the entire program under GPL, no matter what the original >license was. If the license of the original program doesn't allow this, >you get an undistributable program. > >Can any license expert comment on this?
I'm not a licence expert either, but I have seen lots of discussion about the effects of various licences both here and on usenet. ;-) I'm pretty sure that a program must be either entirely GPLed, or contain no GPLed parts. The only way around this would be to separate the GPLed and non-GPLable code into separate programs with a well-defined, documented interface, and even then it would likely still be controvercial. The whole point of the GPL is to ensure that you can't integrate non-GPLed parts into GPLed programs or vice-versa. There was some discussion about a related issue on gnu.misc.discuss when the NPL was being drafted. RMS wanted a clause in the NPL to allow NPLed code to be converted to GPLed. This didn't materialise, thus it's now illegal to incorporate GPLed code into Mozilla and distribute the result. -- Charles Briscoe-Smith White pages entry, with PGP key: <URL:http://alethea.ukc.ac.uk/wp?95cpb4> PGP public keyprint: 74 68 AB 2E 1C 60 22 94 B8 21 2D 01 DE 66 13 E2 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
