hi, On 3/10/2015 12:04 am, Santiago Vila wrote: > On Fri, Oct 02, 2015 at 09:34:10PM +0200, Jonathon Love wrote: >> i'm talking with upstream about the r-cran-afex package, and it seems to >> me that it violates the GPL, but upstream isn't convinced. >> >> afex is GPL >= 3, and it depends on (and calls functions from) R >> packages which are GPL2-only. >> >> is this "textbook GPL violation"? > > I don't think so. A system call to the kernel, for example, is > considered to be "using" the kernel, and will not make your program to > be GPL-2. Is this really different from that? >
but the kernel a special case, because it falls under the system library exception (?) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SystemLibraryException or from the GPL2 itself: "However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable." so the scenario you describe is the exception, rather than the rule. makes sense? jonathon -- JASP - A Fresh Way to Do Statistics http://jasp-stats.org/ -- How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will; Whose armour is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise, or fear to fall: Lord of himself, though not of lands, And, having nothing, yet hath all. -- Sir Henry Wotton

