From: Paul Prescod <paul@...>
Date: 2003-07-10T00:29:37+09:00
Subject: Re: My brief and torrid affair with Ruby.

Daniel Carrera wrote:
>...
> 
> Well... since you are not linking or modifying the source code of these files I 
> would suppose that the GPL doesn't affect you at all.

It seems to me that importing a module is a form of dynamic linking. I 
feel strongly that this is how the FSF would interpret it.

>...
> Finally, who does making your program open source inhibit you from making it 
> commercial?  I mean, if you are currently using Perl and Python you are certainly 
> not hiding the source code.  You can't!  What's the problem with selling a 
> GPL-covered application?

Hiding or not hiding the code is irrelevant. The GPL allows customers to 
redistribute your code which means that your customers can easily become 
your competitors, selling your code at a discount or even giving it away 
for free on their website. You could only "compete" by giving away the 
software yourself and shifting to a service model which is a pretty 
significant change in business model!

  Paul Prescod