Re: iToaster in violation of GPL?

Mike A. Harris (mharris@ican.net)
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 16:11:53 -0400 (EDT)


On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, Jamie Lokier wrote:

>> Any source code, regardless of it's original license, if brought
>> into any GPL'd source code project, _becomes_ automatically
>> itself GPL.
>
>No it doesn't. A popular misconception.
>
>Individual sections retain their original license, it is stated clearly
>in section 2 of the GPL. They can be extracted under their original
>licenses.

If unmodified, yes. Because if they were not modified, they
would be exact to the orignial which was otherwise licensed, and
as such one could get the original anyways, so it makes no
difference. However, if I take BSD sources, and modify them, and
I don't mean adding a function here and there, I mean modifying
each existing bit of code, moving things around, etc... and GPL
it, only the ORIGINAL code is BSD licensed. My modifications are
GPL, and the work as a whole is too. To use the modified whole,
in full or in part is in violation of the GPL, unless the "part"
used coincidentally has NONE of my modifications in it.

>However if the non-GPL section is _modified_, the result may or may not
>be under the GPL. That would depend on the license applied to the
>modifications -- often this is not dealt with clearly.

Right.

--
Mike A. Harris                   Linux advocate      GNU advocate
Computer Consultant                          Open Source advocate  

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot...

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