Re: GPL question

[Barry Margolin]

In article <pan.2005.03.17.16.23.42.538319@bigfoot.com>,
 "Nicholas R. Markham" <markhamnr@bigfoot.com> wrote:

> The rest of the package does not, strictly speaking, depend on the program
> I'm considering GPLing; it could certainly be used without that program.
> However, I'm not sure I could make the reverse claim, that the program
> could be used without the rest of the package.  Nothing would prevent it
> from compiling or running, but since it uses as input files that are
> output by some of the other programs, it wouldn't be able to do much.

If it just reads the files that they produce, it's not a problem.  For 
instance, you can write a GPLed program to decode MS Word files, or 
process the log messages of a proprietary program.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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