On Thu, Sep 30, 1999 at 05:59:33PM -0700, Simon Cooke wrote:
> However, there's no
> restriction on GPL'd programs relying on other libraries which are not
> GPL'd - it's just a matter of taste.
Permission to copy and distribute a GPLd program is conditional upon
distributing the entire source code of the program. Including any libraries
and anything else which forms part of the program. ("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.")
If I write a program and slap the GPL on it then I am of course free to
amend the licencing terms to allow it to be linked with this or that other
non-GPL library. (The program Licq has such a term in its licence to allow
linking with QT.) However, if I don't then you are not allowed to take my
program, link it with a non-GPL library and distribute the result. In doing
so you have created a derivative work, and the GPL applies to the work as a
whole, including the library you have linked it with.
imc
