🚀 go-pugleaf

It looks as if the general public license was carefully worded to
allow linking with the unmodified gnu libraries while retaining the
proprietary nature of the underlying program:

>   2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
> it, and copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of Paragraph
> 1 above, provided that you also do the following:

So far so good, since linking with the libraries is not the
same as modifying them.  If a commercial user is not
interested in modifying the libraries, the rest of section 2
of the license is not applicable.  To clarify the point, the
license goes on to state:

> Mere aggregation of another independent work with the Program (or its
> derivative) on a volume of storage or distribution medium does not bring
> the other work under the scope of these terms.

Linking with the libraries is a form of aggregation on a
storage medium, so this paragraph seems to exclude the fully
linked application from the license restriction.

What of using header files that have inline code, or using a
inlining option in the compiler?  Here the question is less
clear.  Of course, creating a modified version of gcc would
still clearly fall under this license.

I suspect this was not the intent of the general public license.
Perhaps I am in error in my interpretation of it, or perhaps the FSF
will clarify this point in a future version.

These opinions are my own and I am not a lawyer.
--
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