Re: using GPL api to be used in a properietary software

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> [...]
>> Which does not cover _linking_. 
>
> Copyright covers linking only in the GNU Republic.

If one for a moment leaves the area of linking computer programs
(where little legal precedence exists since the situation is so clear
that copyright offenders tend to prefer settling), we can take a look
at the "linking" of web page content which establishes bindings to
third-party material without altering it.

This has seen quite more court exposure, and the general trend, where
litigation went all the way through without settlement, has been
rather definitely to consider such "linking" a breach of copyright.

The main criterion appears to be that the content is used outside of
the intended context for which it has been provided.  For libraries
that have been provided for the explicitly expressed intent and
purpose of linking with GPLed programs, this would appear to be quite
the same.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum