GPL vs BSD Licence

[David Schwartz]

> That is one of the arguments.  But, the GPL is concerned with
> distribution.
> I think this has been raised before with them.  I think that the scenario
> was, if I make a program that dynamically links into GPL, then I
> distribute
> both my program and the GPL code that it links into, do I have to put my
> program under GPL?  I think their answer was yes - they argued that when
> the linking takes place and who links it is immaterial, and that the fact
> that your program cannot run without their stuff means that when your code
> is running, that your program and their stuff become as a single program.

	This argument is obviously, IMO, absurd. Suppose I make a product that
*can* link to a GPL'd library but could, of course, also link to any other
library that provided the same interface. The FSF is arguing that as soon as
somebody links it to the GPL'd library, it becomes a derived work even
though it wasn't one before.

	Nothing that you can do with a work after it's produced can turn that work
into a derivative work of another work. For copyright purposes, it's only
the creative content in the work itself that matters. What you do with that
work later could create new works that have a different status, but can't
change the status of the work itself.

	The FSF is, of course, free to take any position they wish, but this one
is, at least to me, absurd from a legal standpoint.

	Even if the program had been designed from the beginning to work with an
interface that was currently only implemented in a GPL'd library, I would
still find the argument absurd (though slightly less so). The program is a
derived work from the interface itself, not from any particular
implementation of that interface. (And then you would have the very odd case
where whether A is a derivative work of B would depend upon whether B was
written before or after C!)

	I can't imagine that anyone who understood what it is that grants you a
copyright and what a 'derivative' work really is would find this argument at
all persuasive.

	DS