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Re: GPL traitor !


From: Hyman Rosen
Subject: Re: GPL traitor !
Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 15:44:26 -0400
User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (Windows/20090302)

Alan Mackenzie wrote:
In (ii), the new code generator is an extension of GCC, using its data
structures, conventions etc.  This new code, if it is released, must be
released under the GPL.  Just how it's slotted into the existing GCC is
immaterial.

You are wrong. Extensions fall under the GPL only if they incorporate
GPLed code within them by inclusion, not by reference. That is, if the
extension is written by taking existing code and modifying, it falls
under the copyright of the existing work (and is a derivative work as
well, so that the GCC copyright holders could not use it without the
permission of its author). If the extension is written as a separate
new work, it does not fall under the GPL, even if it makes extensive
use of GPLed header files and of data structures that appear in the
GPLed code. Attempting to use copyright to prevent interoperability is
considered by the courts to be a serious breach, and is not allowed.


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