Alexander Terekhov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Merijn de Weerd wrote: > [...] >> Distributors of GPL code are required to make available the full >> source code of all modules, > > All modules constituting a GPL derivative work (or original GPL'd > stuff). > > One must be a total idiot to think that a preexisting BSD library is > a derivative work of the GPL'd "application". Are you a total idiot, > Merijn?
My dearest Alexander, you are confused again. The question is not whether the library is derived from GPLed software. That is irrelevant. The problem is that the GPL states: 2b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License. Of _course_ an independently created BSD library is not a derivative of a GPLed application. But if the complete work or application includes the BSD licensed library as a necessary part, then one must distribute only the complete work licensed as a whole under the GPL. If one can't do that, one can't redistribute the GPLed portion, since one would be breaking the conditions of its license. So the question is not, as you seem to think, whether the BSD library is a derivative of the GPLed "application" according to copyright law, but whether it is an indispensible part of the complete GPLed application according to the notion of "complete work" put forward in the license text (the license, since it does not require acceptance, can put forward arbitrary conditions that can be met before you are allowed to do more with the software than the defaults of copyright law permit). The situation you appear to be confusing this with is the use of a GPLed library as part in a non-GPLed program, quite the other way round. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss