🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9L38eB21w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (Lieutenant 030) writes:

   abraham@iesd.auc.dk (Per Abrahamsen) writes:
   > No, it is not news to you.  Read your question again.  Given the two
   > source files
   > 
   > 	gnu.c		(under GPL)
   > 	mathew.c	(written by you)
   > 
   > You can decide how to distribute (or not distribute) `mathew.c', even
   > if some function in `mathew.c' do call a function defined in `gnu.c'.
   > 
   > However, if you campile a binary `a.out' from the two source files
   > `gnu.c' and `mathew.c', then a.out will clearly be a derivative of
   > both files.  Thus, if you distribute a.out (a derivative of `gnu.c')
   > then you must also be willing to distribute the full source for
   > `a.out', i.e. both `gnu.c' and `mathew.c'.

   But if I distribute gnu.o and mathew.o and get the user to link his own
   a.out, I don't have to distribute full source to mathew.c under the GPL?

   So I can avoid the GPL so long as I distribute object files and get the
   user to link them himself?

I just spoke with rms about this.

If the code is GPL, but not LGPL, then you cannot do quite as you
want.  If they are distributed together (even if in multiple files)
then what you distribute (which is the total program) must be
distributed under the GPL, or in some other fashion approved by the
FSF.  

If the code is LGPL, you can distribute only a binary for your
program, but you must include the source for the entire library (or
make it available at nominal cost), and make the application
re-linkable (provide .o's).  If you prefer the GPL conditions to the
LGPL conditions, you can use them instead, as provided by the LGPL.

My earlier statement about "even if they are in the same program" was
incorrect.  Depending on the degree to which your code is intertwined
with FSF code, the total program may or may not be considered a "work
based on" the FSF code.  There is a gray area involved, which gets
decided by the judges.  If you want advice on whether a particular
case is in the gray area, you need to pay your own lawyer; we aren't
lawyers, so we can't tell you definitely.

	-mib