ned@pebbles.cad.mcc.com (Ned Nowotny) (08/18/89)
In article <9288@chinet.chi.il.us> ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat) writes: >The gist of this is that, because the GNU copyleft is included with the BISON >parser files, your application then must be redistributable under the same >terms. This is not true. You might, at most, be responsible for providing >the GNU parser include files as source, on request--in which case, you would >most likely provide the entire GNU package. But RMS and company cannot require >you to release your code on the basis of their include file. > >If this were the case, then the object code compiled by many commercial micro >compilers would belong to the vendor providing the compiler, since many include >a copyright notice in the object code. Of course, it is precisely because vendor include files and library objects are used in making a binary executable, that some compiler vendors have historically required licensee's to pay royalties on every binary sold. The only reason this practice is no longer prevalent is because customers chose to buy compilers from vendors who did not require royalties. The same copyright laws that allowed vendors to try and collect royalties, provide FSF the legal clout to require that you abide by all terms of their General Purpose License, including the requirement that all code including FSF licensed software must be distributed under the terms of the GPL. (If this is incorrect, a definitive correction by the FSF lawyer would be most appreciated.) In any case, just as commercial vendors are free to forego royalties on binarys which include their header and library software, FSF could (but will not do so willingly) release non-GPL code from the terms of the GPL. Widespread use of dynamically linked libraries (coupled with the fairly trivial production of truly PD header files) may make this whole matter moot. Ned Nowotny, MCC CAD Program, Box 200195, Austin, TX 78720 Ph: (512) 338-3715 ARPA: ned@mcc.com UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have ways to make you scream." - Intel advertisement in the June 1989 DDJ.