From: Austin Ziegler <austin@...>
Date: 2003-07-11T13:31:33+09:00
Subject: Re: My brief and torrid affair with Ruby.


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On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:55:06 +0900, Daniel Carrera wrote:
> 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.

Highly debatable and not determined by law or caselaw. The armchair
lawyers at /. have suggested that SCO may have possibly included
"proprietary" code with the GPLed code that they sent, or vice-versa
(particularly for the Linux compatibility layer) and doing so could
expose SCO to a massive violation of the GPL.

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

Again, highly debatable, and this statement is likely *untrue*
because of the terms of the GPL itself. Remember earlier in the
discussion I made the distinction between the code you write and the
product you release. I can code something with a BSD licence and
combine it with a GPLed library. My code still has a BSD licence;
the library still has the GPL; the combined work must have the GPL,
which effectively overrides my choice of BSD as a licence.

>> 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.

You do have to protect yourself: you have to make sure you don't use
GPLed code in software that you don't want to become GPLed.

- -austin
- --
austin ziegler    * austin@halostatue.ca * Toronto, ON, Canada
software designer * pragmatic programmer * 2003.07.11
                                         * 00:24:28

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