> In message <199807120623.QAA14836@vindaloo.atnf.CSIRO.AU>, Richard Gooch
> writes
> :
> +-----
> | > list, because of the implications the logic involved has for someone
> | > who wants to re-implement part of the kernel, sell it, yet keep the
> | > source to themselves.
> | Erm, no. It only belongs here if someone was going to bugger the
> | kernel this way. No-one was suggesting to do that: Alan was only
> | drawing an analogy, he wasn't seriously proposing it. Hence this
> | thread is irrelevant to the kernel list.
> +--->8
>
> This situation was resolved with respect to the kernel years ago, with
> respect to manufacturers wanting to provide proprietary (.o-only) drivers
> for the kernel (multiport boards, if I remember correctly).
Yes, IIRC Linus said that he doesn't consider module-loading at
runtime to be "linking" (someone correct me if I misremember). I have
always wondered whether he can actually *do* that - do't the hard-and-fast
meanings of all the terms in a legal document have to be fixed at compile
time, so to speak? I mean, if you (being the author of a piece of GPLed
software that can link to something else) are allowed to interpret
"linking" to mean whatever you want it to mean on a case-by-case basis,
where's the meaningful distinction between GPL and LGPL? The BeOS case
showed that basically anyone can "link" GPLed code whenever they want, as
long as they keep their address spaces separate.
IMHO there isn't any such meaningfule distinction between the GPL
and LGPL, and my non-lawyer suspicions tell me that eventually it will be
found in a court of law that once you compile GPLed code you cannot put
any restrictions on how people "run" the binary - which is all linking is,
really. Whoever made the point about distributed object systems was
correct - systems like that make everything "link" to everything else
anyway.
Jon
--- 'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in becoming one with God.' - Scientist G. Richard Seed
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