Re: Lilypond \include statements and the GPL

[Tim McNamara]

On Mar 28, 2013, at 1:26 PM, Joseph Rushton Wakeling <address@hidden> wrote:

> I should add that the underlying motivation here is licensing clarity for some
> of Urs and Janek's work on useful toolboxes for Lilypond.  It's clearly
> desirable that these kits be copylefted as far as any code derivative is
> concerned, but it's obviously not intended that the copyleft extend to users'
> .ly files.
> 
> I was convinced that this issue must already have been systematically 
> discussed
> with respect to Lilypond's own files, hence my questions ...

My understanding is always been that the GPL applies to the software used to 
produce a file, not to the file itself. Therefore, the GPL would not apply to 
the users' .ly files; the user has the option of specifying under what license 
any such files might be published.