Re: GPL traitor ! OT?: can my program say "GO RUN <some-fsf-program"?

[Hyman Rosen]

David Combs wrote:
> Following what's left of this humongous thread, I add this question:
>
> Suppose I have a non-free program, and instead of linking one way
> or another or even directly running a fsf program, I type out:
>
> "To do the required next step, please run the gnu program xyz.
>  Here's how:
>
>    xyz -foo -bletch 2386.2  "hello there" > xyz.out
>
> Thanks!"
>
> after which my program then reads in xyz.out and uses
> those xyz-produced results.
>
> How does THAT fly?

Copyright law involves copying. Ask yourself whether any protected
work is being copied in violation of the copyright holder's terms.
If there is no such copying, then copyright law does not prohibit
the action. Your case does not appear to involve any copying at all.