From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-07-11T10:55:06+09:00
Subject: Re: My brief and torrid affair with Ruby.

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On Fri, Jul 11, 2003 at 10:47:12AM +0900, Sean O'Dell wrote:

> It's moderately significant.  In the context of the "viral" nature of the
> GPL, it's the equivalent of wearing a plastic bubble suit.  You can choose
> to protect yourself from it, sure.  But you can also choose to protect
> yourself from the flu.

I think that we've made progress.  At least I've conveyed what piece of 
the if statement I am discussing.

Now, I really think that the GPL is different from a bubble-suit.  You do 
not need to take any action to protect from the GPL.  If you end up with 
GPL code in your application, and you do not take any action, your 
application is still not GPL.

You do not have to do anything to prevent your applications from becomming 
GPL, even after foreign GPL code has been included.

> Having this choice doesn't determine whether or not the GPL is viral, 
> just like wearing a plastic bubble suit doesn't make the flu non-viral; 

If I thought that your bubble analogy was correct, in that you have to 
protect youself, I would agree with this statement.

I believe that your bubble analogy is not correct.  You do not need to do 
something to prevent your code from being GPL.  Thus, I disagree with your 
claim that the GPL is viral.


- -- 
Daniel Carrera         | OpenPGP fingerprint:
Graduate TA, Math Dept | 6643 8C8B 3522 66CB D16C D779 2FDD 7DAC 9AF7 7A88
UMD  (301) 405-5137    | http://www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/pgp.html
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