Re: GPL traitor !

[Alan Mackenzie]

Good evening, Hadron!

In gnu.misc.discuss Hadron <hadronquark@gmail.com> wrote:
> Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

>> In gnu.misc.discuss Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote:

>>> You appear to believe that modifying the source of a GPLed program
>>> so that it invokes a function which is provided separately under a
>>> non-GPL license violates the GPL even when the modified program is
>>> distributed *as source*. Is that true?

>> No.  If the invoked function is truly separate (e.g., calling an emailing
>> library function from  GCC), it needn't be GPL'd.  If the invoked
>> function is essentially a part of the calling program, it must also be
>> GPL.  

> "essentially" : non definite.

Yes.  Easy to understand, though, particularly with the illustrative
example.

>> This is covered by section 2 of GPL2 ("... and can be reasonably
>> considered independent and separate works in themselves ...") and

> "reasonably" : non definite.

Yes.  Also easy to understand, at least for people experienced in
software development.

>> Copyright licenses for software do however deal with functionality.
>> Copyright law also has the notion of "derived works".

> Where were we on your assertions that the GPL is "easy" for anyone to
> understand?

:-)  I suppose I asked for that.  OK, it's not easy for everybody to
understand.  It's easy to understand for intelligent people who want
to understand it.

> With all due respect Alan, your claims are looking more and more
> ridiculous. And each post you make reinforces just how incorrect and
> living in la-la land you were when you made those claims.

And now you've descended to ad hominem abuse.  Fair enough, you don't
want to understand the GPL, and I can't make you, not that I'd want to.

But I'll ask you again.  What's your interest in this matter?  What's
your stake in the GPL?  You seem to care about it a great deal.  Or are
you just a totally disinterested outsider who, somehow, finds this
discussion intellectually stimulating?

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).