Re: Discussion about licenses, copyrights, business, and source code

[Andrew Johnson <anj@aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Ben,

On 10/30/2014 11:58 AM, Benjamin Franksen wrote:
> On the other hand, think about systems in which there are no "programs"
> in usual sense, just subroutines (e.g. VxWorks, RTEMS): using a GPL'ed
> subroutine together with another non-free subroutine inside the same
> system would then be forbidden because one has to regard the whole thing
> as one big program and thus a "derived work". So have we already been
> violating the GPL all the time or what?

No, because we never try to distribute the resulting combined programs,
and it's only the right of distribution (i.e. giving a copy of a GPL
program to someone else) that is subject to the laws of copyright. You
already stated the FSF's position that the GPL allows any *use* of a GPL
program without restriction, it has no legal teeth to prevent that anyway.

- Andrew
-- 
People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.
-- A. J. Liebling