Re: what DOES the GPL really say?

[Wes Groleau <no.such.user@no.such.com>]

Richard Kenner wrote:
> 
> [I've changed the newsgroup from gnu.gcc, which doesn't exist, to
> gnu.misc.discuss, which is the proper newsgroup to discuss the GPL.]
> 
> In article <33B014E3.3343@no.such.com> Wes Groleau <no.such.user@no.such.com> wrote (slightly re-worded for clarity):
> >HOWEVER, several people have said on Usenet or in direct e-mail
> >that I can re-use GPL'd source code as part of my program and 
> >still retain full rights (actually my employer's rights) on the
> >rest of the code.
> 
> ..... you can indeed do as the people suggested: there is no
> problem in *creating* such a work, to which both the GPL applies and
> to which you retain full rights to your own code.
> 
> >So, if any part of my program contains any part (or derivation of)
> >their program, I have two choices:
> >1. Distribute my program "as a whole" under the terms of the GPL
> >2. Don't distribute my program.
> 
> That's correct and exactly the status of the resulting work.  If you
> [must] continue to view [the] code as proprietary, then you have two
> different copyright terms for pieces of the code and the only way to
> satisfy both is not to distribute the work at all.

However, that is not what people have been telling me.  Several times
I have been reprimanded for saying I cannot incorporate a particular
bit of code due to the GPL.

> >I am sympathetic to the goals of the Free Software Foundation, but I
> >think that--by trying too hard to coerce other people to make
> >software "free"--the above paragraph is counter-productive to those
> >goals.  It forces me to re-invent things just so my employers can
> >say they own them.
> 
> That may be, but the whole point is that people have spent
> considerable amount of time, usually without any compensation, to
> create the GPL'd code in question.  They are doing this because they
> want to help the public in general and don't want their work to be
> used to help somebody else do something that is against their
> philosophy.  This does not seem particularly unreasonable to me.

It does not seem unreasonable to me either.  But David Weller's
approach, and the GNAT approach are far more helpful in that they
allow me to actually use the code, not just look at it.  Call me
(adjective) if you want for cooperating with software hoarders,
but I tilt at bigger windmills. 

-- 
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    Wes Groleau, Hughes Defense Communications, Fort Wayne, IN USA
Senior Software Engineer - AFATDS                  Tool-smith Wanna-be
                    wwgrol AT pseserv3.fw.hac.com

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