Just for the record, for those who wonder why the VC++ runtime libs were included that way in the installer, there were actually 2 reasons: - convenience - possibility to install octave without admin rights
Bye, Michael. On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 5:09 PM, Brett Smith via RT <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this; I was traveling > when you wrote. I think I answered a question from an Octave user about > this a couple of days ago, so you might have already heard an initial > response on this. He didn't mention that Octave was the software in > question, though, so I didn't know to include you in the discussion. > I'm happy to help try to clear things up here. > >> [[email protected] - Tue Apr 21 12:11:05 2009]: >> >> Is it a violation of the GPL (v2 and v3) to bundle the Visual C++ >> redistributable libraries and GPLed libraries in a single executable >> installer? > > I do not think either version of the GNU GPL allows this kind of > bundling. Because these libraries are normally packaged with the > compiler used to compile the program, ordinarily they would qualify for > the System Library exception, which means you're exempt from providing > their source code when you distribute the source for the program. > However, both versions of the GNU GPL have language which prevent this > exemption from applying to libraries that are actually distributed in > tandem with the GPLed software. So, the GPL expects you to include the > source for these libraries -- and since you cannot do that, you cannot > include them in the installer. > > The reason the GPL works this way is because we need to keep the System > Library exception very narrow. If we make it too easy for libraries to > qualify as System Libraries, it will become feasible for companies to > change free software and keep the changes proprietary by putting them in > a "System Library." The language that prevents System Libraries from > being distributed alongside the software helps prevent this sort of abuse. > > To the best of my knowledge, this exact situation is the only one that > presents problems for distributors. As far as I'm aware, on every other > major operating system in use today, all the libraries that would > qualify as System Libraries come with the operating system, or are at > least part of the standard install. The runtime libraries for > Microsoft's compilers are the only exception. > >> If that is a GPL violation, does it depend strictly on the installer >> being an executable, or would it also apply to a .zip or .tar.gz >> installer (e.g., a compressed archive that contains an installation >> program and many packages to install, including the VC++ library >> installer executable)? > > No. Distributing the Octave binaries and the runtime libraries on the > same media would be problematic, regardless of the specific medium used. > > I think the Windows binary distribution should simply provide users with > instructions to obtain the libraries from Microsoft's site. I realize > that's inconvenient, but hopefully it's not too bad, and I think it's a > worthwhile change to avoid any GPL trouble. > > If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me; I'll be > on the lookout for those, and try to respond as quickly as possible. > > Best regards, > > -- > Brett Smith > Licensing Compliance Engineer, Free Software Foundation > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The NEW KODAK i700 Series Scanners deliver under ANY circumstances! Your production scanning environment may not be a perfect world - but thanks to Kodak, there's a perfect scanner to get the job done! With the NEW KODAK i700 Series Scanner you'll get full speed at 300 dpi even with all image processing features enabled. http://p.sf.net/sfu/kodak-com _______________________________________________ Octave-dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/octave-dev
