On Thu, Jun 08, 2017 at 09:40:17AM +0200, Krzysztof Jackiewicz wrote: > > No, that makes no sense. It'd mean that putting two zip files that one > > provides > > and the other uses a function with the same name next to one another would > > make them somehow connected and derivatives of one another. The whole > > point of dynamic linking is that you can provide independent implementations > > of the API, and you can clearly substitute libcryptsetup with another > > implementation, and both bodies of code are usable without one another. > > Then how would you interpret the following statements: > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLStaticVsDynamic > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
I interpret them as FSF wanting to drum up the importance of GPL a bit by purposefully not clarifying this area. The case of linking non-GPL software with GPL libraries is quite common and important, and if they wanted to add an entry to the FAQ, they certainly would. They talk a lot about "plugins", but that's a significantly different case, because a plugin is very closely tied to the program that loads it. > IMHO it's not so obvious and it may depend on a specific > case. Perhaps in case of runtime dynamic linking when GPL library > existence is not required for the application to run it will be > treated as a mere aggregation. With all due respect I think that to > solve it we'd need a lawyer indeed :) Well, will all respect due to (a) lawyer, to solve it once and for all, we'd probably need a body of binding court decisions in multiple jurisdictions ;) In the GPL there's very little about what derived means. Various interpretations in the FSF FAQ are post-factum, and not part of the license. I'm pretty sure that the interpretation that independent works distributed as parts of a distro are still independent is in agreement with both the spirit and the letter of the GPL. In Galoob v. Nintendo, in appeal, it was ruled that the derivative work "must incorporate a portion of the copyrighted work in some form", which does not happen when you just put two rpms side by side. Zbyszek _______________________________________________ systemd-devel mailing list systemd-devel@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel