Re: Releasing a proprietary program under the GPL

[sctkell]

Ahhh... the answer to my own question is that Proprietary Program P
can link with non-free Library L and use free library G only if it's
okay with the copyright holders of G to link with non-free library L.
[1]  That makes sense.  Sorry for asking a FAQ!

[1] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FSWithNFLibs


sctk...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to learn about and understand the GPL and I hope I can
> present this question in a coherent manner.
>
> Let's say I'm the copyright holder to a proprietary program P.  I want
> to change the license for P to use the GPL.  However P is heavily
> dependent on a 3rd party proprietary library L.  The license for L
> does not permit the redistribution of L's source, and you can only
> redistribute L's binaries if you have a "development license" for L.
> Also, L does not fit the definition for a "system library".
>
> At first I thought no problem - GPLv2 and v3 have a provision for the
> copyright holder to give permission to link P with GPL-incompatible
> libraries lilke L.
>
> However, let's say I want to integrate a GPL covered library G into my
> new GPL program P.  However, unlike P, the license for G does NOT have
> a provision saying it's okay to link G with L.  So could P link with G
> and L and be redistributed like that?
>
> Thanks!
> Scott