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GPL facts
From: |
Etienne M. Gagnon |
Subject: |
GPL facts |
Date: |
Wed, 07 Nov 2001 11:50:07 -0500 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i586; en-US; rv:0.9.5) Gecko/20011023 |
Another interesting Q&A in the GPL FAQ:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL
Q: If a programming language interpreter is released under the GPL, does that
mean programs written to be interpreted by it must be under GPL-compatible licenses?
A: When the interpreter just interprets a language, the answer is no. The
interpreted program, to the interpreter, is just data; a free software license
like the GPL, based on copyright law, cannot limit what data you use the
interpreter on. You can run it on any data (interpreted program), any way you
like, and there are no requirements about licensing that data to anyone.
However, when the interpreter is extended to provide "bindings" to other
facilities (often, but not necessarily, libraries), the interpreted program is
effectively linked to the facilities it uses through these bindings. So if these
facilities are released under the GPL, the interpreted program that uses them
must be released in a GPL-compatible way. The JNI or Java Native Interface is an
example of such a facility; libraries that are accessed in this way are linked
dynamically with the Java programs that call them.
Another similar and very common case is to provide libraries with the
interpreter which are themselves interpreted. For instance, Perl comes with many
Perl modules, and a Java implementation comes with many Java classes. These
libraries and the programs that call them are always dynamically linked together.
A consequence is that if you choose to use GPL'd Perl modules or Java
classes in your program, you must release the program in a GPL-compatible way,
regardless of the license used in the Perl or Java interpreter that the combined
Perl or Java program will run on.
--
Etienne M. Gagnon http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM: http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC: http://www.sablecc.org/
- Re (2): testing before a release, reali, 2001/11/07
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Etienne M. Gagnon, 2001/11/07
- GPL facts,
Etienne M. Gagnon <=
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Brian Jones, 2001/11/07
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Per Bothner, 2001/11/07
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Fred Gray, 2001/11/08
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Mark Wielaard, 2001/11/09
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Etienne M. Gagnon, 2001/11/09
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Mark Wielaard, 2001/11/16
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Etienne M. Gagnon, 2001/11/16
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Stuart Ballard, 2001/11/16
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Etienne M. Gagnon, 2001/11/16
- Re: Re (2): testing before a release, Brad Cox, 2001/11/16