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GPLv2 Libraries — Is There a Point?
PiSkyHi writes "I understand that if I build an application that links with a library that is licensed under GPLv2, I must also make my application GPL2. I can see that value in this for an application. But for a library, what's to stop me separating my program into a GPLv2-compliant client app that talks to the rest of my (choose my own license) application?"
I think a reasonable test would be to ask: is my program still mostly useful even if the GPLd helper/plugin is removed (modulo the specific removed function)?. If so, then I think it could be argued that your program is NOT a derivative work and that the GPL helper is governed the same as, say, a GPLd user application bundled with a commercial Unix/OSX distro. Personally I don't think it should matter how exactly it communicates with your code - what makes launching a process any different from a function call here?
Conversely: artificially doing contortions with your software to move essential libraries out to a separate app is not only in bad faith, but it doesn't work around the license at all. And if you ever had to argue otherwise, anyone turning up your slashdot story would not probably work in your favor.
IMHO the GPL, even v3, needs some work to clarify this question and also to close the hole for the software-as-a-service industry to modify GPL code without reciprocating.
There is nothing wrong with you not using my code if you do not like my conditions, either...
I understand that if I build an application that links with a library that is licensed under GPLv2, I must also make my application GPL2
That is NOT correct.
The criteria is 'derivative work', not 'link to'. Linking is sometimes a rule of thumb in this area, but it isn't decisive.
Note that 'derivative work' is a legal term, not a technical one. So before you try to circumvent the GPL in this way, consult a lawyer.
I've always found that position funny...
Some people share something freely, with the requirement that anyone building atop it does likewise. They're zealots.
Other people require you to agree to a contract before looking at their program. Disallow reverse engineering. Disallow redistribution. Disallow extension, enhancement, improvement, porting, circumvention. They're normal.
Dude, what?
'Free' is not a magic word that means something absolutely, there is no $DEITY-given dictionary which provides a canonical meaning for the word. Whether I call it 'free', 'open', 'shared', 'blue' or 'pretty' is completely irrelevant: what is relevant is what users and developers are allowed to do with the code and under what conditions.
This silly bickering about what kind 'free' is freer was boring already decades ago...
I realize this probably stems from an irrational fear of proprietary software -- fear that F/OSS code will get eaten up and essentially stolen if there wasn't the backing of the GPL.
What's irrational about that?
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
I don't really see what's wrong with that. Isn't the normal way economic transactions work in a market economy with copyright laws something like: if you want to use use a part of my copyrighted work in your own, you have to get a license from me, usually involving payment?
I see using the GPL as sticking with that as the default, but making a special exception that if you give blanket permission to the general public to use and distribute your own code, royalty-free, in both original and modified versions, then you may use my code royalty-free under the same terms. But if you want to stick to the normal copyright model, then I will also, and we can agree on terms in the usual manner.
Basically I don't see how someone who uses the normal approach to copyright licensing in their own products could possibly object to me asking them to negotiate a license in order to use my code as part of their product.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The fact that it can't happen. If you BSD license project A, and company M takes it and makes closed source project B with it, project A is *still* available from your site for free and open. yada yada.
We've been through this a million times before. The company has now stolen the time of the guy who wrote the free code in the first place, or at least the guy may feel like that. It's also possible that they extended his file format or network protocol with proprietary parts, harming interoperability and the users of the free version by impeding the network effect.
Some developers care, some don't, some care or not depending on circumstance and goals of the software project. None of these positions is more irrational than the other.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
That's entirely fair enough then. I have nothing against people using the GPL because it's genuinely the model they want. I have something against people claiming to be open when doing so.