GPLv3 myth#2: You can't mix GPL software with other software

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Gentlemen, start your engines.

I appreciated this part of the discussion:

In his ?Comments on GPLv3? essay, open source attorney Lawrence Rosen writes that he believes this clause can even be used to combine GPL licensed code ?modules? with code from other licenses even in the same program, though I think that?s a bit of a stretch.
...
I don?t agree with this argument because the combination would be possible not just with Apache licensed code, but with code covered by any license, even proprietary, closed source code. I don?t think RMS (Richard Stallman) would agree either. To this, Larry replied:

"He doesn?t. But he wrote GPLv3 and he must now live by the words in his license."

[End of quote.]


The tacit belief that proprietary code is evil and would corrupt the purity of open source if harnessed to it is noted without surprise. Many would view code as code, but to some proprietary code is by its nature morally fraught.


Back on topic, Mr. Rosen makes a good, Scalia-type point that a license when issued becomes a set of words, whose meaning is significant independent of the intentions of the author of the text. Interpretation need refer to a philosophical essay by Mr. Stallman about as often as it's necessary to refer to Congresional debate to interpret a statute or Constitutional provision.

So, the day that the license is finalized, those whose hours are paid to look at words - excluding English majors, so let's say commercially significant words - will be parsing the document closely.

Just as Red Hat and Microsoft were able to read GPLv2 closely enough to comply with the letter and not the spirit of the rules, so the new license will have its happy evaders.

Business necessity.

That might be a lesson to someone interested in knowing how the need to earn a living makes idealism realistic, but that's not a likely outcome here.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 06/07/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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