On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Jay Ashworth <j...@baylink.com> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Anthony" <wikim...@inbox.org> > >> On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:57 PM, Aryeh Gregor >> <simetrical+wikil...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > Linking has no special status in the GPL -- it's just a question of >> > what legally constitutes a derivative work. If a C program that >> > dynamically links to a library is legally a derivative work of that >> > library, >> >> It isn't. A C program which *contains* a library is legally a >> derivative work of that library. > > Static linking fits that description. Dynamic linking -- through the > FSF would really like it to -- does not.
I'm not sure if that's true or not. There's certainly an argument to be made that dynamic linking creates a derivative work *at the time it is linked*. Also, there's an even stronger argument that using the GPL header files to compile the unlinked program creates a derivative work. (If you want to reverse engineer the header files then you can get around that problem, but that's a lot of extra work, and in most cases, such as this one, you might as well convert the library into a standalone program that can be used via a pipe.) _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
