Re: Linus Speaks About KDE-Bashing

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:03:17 +0100 (BST)


> Actually, this is already happing today, whenever dynamic
> linking is used to load a propietary application and load it on
> a GPLed operating system or whenever a propietary operating
> system loads GPLed code.

Only if they dont have direct dependancies. There is precedent
here of sorts although it never went to court. Please review
the Objective C and NeXT incident in detail

> you from providing a mechanism (a script for example) that
> enables the user to do this linkage without requiring him to
> know about what he is doing. And you may even provide such a

The law is actually not as dumb as you imply. Your script for
example is a linking mechanism and you are providing it linked

> Or look at what happened with Be: They may have infected part of
> their system with GPLed code, but since that system is a highly
> modular microkernel, this infection is not really relevant,
> since the infected component is extremely self-contained. On the

> other hand, it's disclosure is of almost no value to the Open
> Source community without disclosure of the noninfected rest of
> the operating system.

Be had a few problems actually, they had to correct their illegal
use of GPL code and sort things out appropriately.

Alan

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