Re: freed_symbols [Re: People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model]]

[David Woodhouse]

On Mon, 2003-10-06 at 11:38 -0700, Larry McVoy wrote:
> The thing that is trying to cross the boundary is the kernel license
> so what matters is if the thing which you believe should be GPLed is
> separable or not.

Forget boundaries, Larry. Consider the case of the Creosote Public
Licence to which I referred before. That one required you to bathe daily
in creosote and release _all_ your future work under the same licence;
separate works or not.

If you don't comply with the licence, you may not use the original work.
It's that simple -- whatever the requirements of the licence are, you
obey them or you don't have a licence.

In the case of the CPL, it isn't a crime for you to publish your own
non-derived work under another licence, or one day to decide not to
bathe in creosote -- but it does place you in violation of the Creosote
Public Licence and hence mean that continued use of the _original_ work
is a violation of its copyright; and therefore a criminal offence.

This is not about whether a licence _can_ demand this. We know it can --
it can demand the ritual sacrifice of your first-born, and all that
means is that if you don't agree, you don't get to use the software in
questionÂ.

This is about whether the GPL _does_ demand this. I believe that it
does, and that the user-space exception and the existence of the LGPL
make that fact entirely clear.

-- 
dwmw2

 Admittedly, incitement to murder is an offence in most countries
  but you get the point, and you still wouldn't be permitted to
  use the software if you didn't do it :)

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