Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!mailrus!uflorida!stat!stat.fsu.edu!mccalpin From: mccalpin@masig2.ocean.fsu.edu (John D. McCalpin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: The GNU license. Message-ID: Date: 26 Jul 89 21:26:58 GMT References: <26027@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Sender: news@stat.fsu.edu Distribution: na Organization: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Lines: 24 In-reply-to: taylor@lanai.cs.ucla.edu's message of 26 Jul 89 18:37:29 GMT In article kennel@cognet.ucla.edu (Matt Kennel) writes: >This does _not_ only affect software developers. Consider a typical >Programming Systems class (CS217 at Princeton, my alma mater) which >uses GCC and the libraries. The copyleft means that Jock Bonehead, >who's running a low C- average, can demand that Joan Von Neumann give >him her A+ final programming project, complete with source code. This is utter bullshit.... The GNU copyleft says nothing at all about your own personal use of your own programs -- and a classroom assignment certainly qualifies as personal use. The GNU copyleft _does_ say that: *if* you _distribute_ a program produced by way of the GNU software, then you have to distribute the source for that program also, for at most a copying fee. I'll leave it for others to decide whether run-time libraries are reasonably included in this (I think not), but the agreement clearly covers _distribution_ of programs, not merely their creation. -- John D. McCalpin - mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu - mccalpin@nu.cs.fsu.edu mccalpin@delocn.udel.edu