On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Branden Robinson wrote: > On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 01:49:03PM +0000, Stephen Turner wrote: > > > > But I am getting a bit confused here. Take the zlib licence, for example, > > which contains the condition: > > 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution. > > The FSF says that this is compatible with the GPL, but I don't understand > > how this can be so. It imposes an extra restriction, namely the requirement > > to reproduce the zlib copyright and licence notice, in addition to the terms > > of the GPL. Can someone explain to me how this can be GPL-compatible? > > [from clause 2 of the GPL] > These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If > identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, > and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in > themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those > sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you > distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based > on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of > this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the > entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote > it. > > Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest > your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to > exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or > collective works based on the Program. > > The above language leads me to believe that the intent of the GPL is NOT to > say that telling people they cannot remove the text of a copyright > notice, or a license text that applies to a work, is not allowed. >
IANAL, but I disagree with your interpretation of this passage. It refers explicitly to "separate works". If the analog code contains chunks of zlib code within it, then the opposite case, "part of a whole" should apply. -- Stephen Turner, Cambridge, UK http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adelie/stephen/ "This is Henman's 8th Wimbledon, and he's only lost 7 matches." BBC, 2/Jul/01
