Re: Licensing question about the BSD

[Alexander Terekhov]

Bruce Lewis wrote:
[...]
> GPL'ed code.  Your application's dependence on the GPLed code is very
> likely to make it a derivative work.

"Various claims made by the FSF, conflating engineering dependencies 
 with copyright infringement, are not correct as a matter of law and 
 do not form part of the agreement accepted by a licensee when 
 exercising the license granted in the GPL. Therefore, 
 notwithstanding the drafters' intentions, the GPL text as written 
 does not compel the release of source code for independently 
 authored software components that use (or are used by) GPL programs 
 through any of the usual mechanisms employed elsewhere in the 
 software industry. GPL "enforcement" actions that proceed on this 
 basis, including those against NeXT and MCC which resulted in the
 assignment to the FSF of copyright to the Objective C and C++ front
 ends to GCC, operate under false pretenses."

   -- Michael K. Edwards, Will the Real GNU GPL Please Stand Up?, 
      unpublished draft 10th June 2005.

regards,
alexander.