[thelist] GNU / GPL
Stephen Rider
evolt_org at striderweb.com
Wed Oct 24 18:09:54 CDT 2007
On Oct 24, 2007, at 1:46 PM, Shawn K. Quinn wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 11:04 -0500, Stephen Rider wrote:
>> I believe I have seen software that, the first time you run it, goes
>> on the internet and downloads needed GPL libraries and installs
>> them. This is supposedly a workaround because the GPLed library is
>> not actually distributed with the software itself.
>>
>> I have no idea of the legality of this. It's possible the software
>> authors doing this break the law. But I have definitely seen it
>> more than once in non-GPL applications. Worht checking into.
>
> If this was as widespread as you say it is, I'm surprised nothing was
> said about it while GPL version 3 was being drafted recently. Maybe
> it's
> technically within even the spirit of the GPL by a hair, but I
> definitely smell a rat.
I'm a Mac guy, and I play a lot with shareware and freeware. IIRC,
I've seen this in various implementations of video-related software
for the Mac, which are generally themselves ports of *nix programs
with a GUI slapped on.
Didn't say it was kosher, just that it's done. For Fred's situation,
however, the legality is at least worth checking out, I would think.
The requirement that you release the source code makes commercial
software effectively free, as anyone with a bit of know-how can take
your source and compile it as the full program. Am I mistaken in
this? Please do correct me if I'm wrong -- this topic _does_
interest me.
Stephen
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