Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!attctc!ltf
From: ltf@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US (Lance Franklin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Re^2: GNU programs, copyleft (was Re: IS MT UUCP Legal??) (long)
Message-ID: <8675@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 16 Jul 89 22:54:34 GMT
References: <4456ee6c.14a1f@gtephx.UUCP> <1602@atari.UUCP> <20384@cup.portal.com> <1603@atari.UUCP> <2797@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Reply-To: ltf@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Lance Franklin)
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection BBS, Dallas, Tx
Lines: 30

In article <2797@ssc-vax.UUCP> coy@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stephen B Coy) writes:
>Ok, your code compiled with GCC is yours to do with as you will.
>If you link in GNU libraries then the executable is covered by the
>copyleft.  The underlying idea here is pretty simple.  GCC is a
>translator from C source to object.  When you put your code in, what
>comes out is still your code but in a different form.  The
>libraries, however, are GNU code and therefore anything containing
>them fall under copyleft.

Hold on now....does that mean that, if I use their libraries, I am obligated
to supply the source code of MY part of the program to anybody that asks for
it, or am I only responsible for supplying the source code for the libraries
(which, I assume, would include supplying the source for the compiler as
well, since these things usually have to be supplied as a unit).  If it's the
former, you can pretty much kiss off any use of GCC for commercial applications,
since almost nobody wants to supply their source code to a the general
public in the commercial marketplace, since that general public almost always
includes your competitors, or possible competitors.

But didn't somebody say that the libraries were released under a different
sort of copyright(left)?

Lance


-- 
+-------------------------+ +------------------------------------------+
| Lance T Franklin        | | "And all who heard should see them there,
| ltf@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US | |  And all should cry, Beware!  Beware!
+-------------------------+ +  His flashing eyes, his floating hair!"