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
