Re: GPL traitor !

[Rjack]

Hyman Rosen wrote:
> Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> > In the GPL context, 17 USC 117 covers not only dynamic linking 
> > but also static linking. I'm talking about distribution of "exact
> >  copies [that is, exact copies of the GPL'd stuff statically 
> > linked] prepared in accordance with the provisions of this 
> > section..."
> >
> > See 17 USC 117 and CONTU.
> >
> > http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise17.html
> >
> > There is no difference between static and dynamic linking.
>
> No, this is false. A statically linked program is a collective work
>  containing separately copyrighted elements. Permission to include 
> an element in a collective work is separate from any other 
> permission one has to use that work:
>
> <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000201----000-.html>
>
>
>
>
>
> § 201. Ownership of copyright ... (c)  Contributions to Collective 
> Works. — Copyright in each separate contribution to a collective 
> work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a whole, 
> and vests initially in the author of the contribution. In the 
> absence of an express transfer of the copyright or of any rights 
> under it, the owner of copyright in the collective work is presumed
>  to have acquired only the privilege of reproducing and 
> distributing the contribution as part of that particular collective
>  work, any revision of that collective work, and any later 
> collective work in the same series.
>
> In order to copy and distribute a statically linked program which 
> contains GPLed elements, separate permission is needed for those 
> elements apart from any other permission one might have already. 
> The GPL grants this permission only when the work as a whole is 
> distributed under the GPL.

GPL sec. 2 reads:
 "2. You may *modify* your copy or copies of the Program or any
portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:"

By statutory definition, a compilation does *not* modify a preexisting
work, hence sec. 2 never applies to compilations. So... what section
of the GPL applies to compilations consisting of the preexisting
"separately copyrighted" elements?

Sincerely,
Rjack