Can Java code EVER be GPLd, at all?

[Justin Wells]

On Fri, Nov 12, 1999 at 07:48:57PM -0800, Arandir wrote:

> But attempting to pass your license on to someone *else's* code is a very
> different thing. In the case of scripts, using CORBA objects, etc., you are
> attempting to dictate to someone *else* how they should license the code they
> wrote.

Philosophically, this is not very different than dictating to someone else 
that they use my license when they include my code in their application. 
We've just changed the linking technology slightly, and then made the 
same statement. 

The problem, of course, is that copyright law is unlikely to concurr.

So this raises a very interesting question:

   --> Is it possible to copyleft a Java program, at all? <--

All Java classes link at runtime. Thus you could use any Java class in 
any program you like, and the result would not be subject to the GPL 
until the program is run. So distribution, copying, etc., would be 
unencumbered. 

I would like a license for which this is not true--one that allows me 
to impose the same kinds of terms on Java programs that people are 
used to imposing on C programs. 

That simple statement ignores the huge thorny complexity that Java 
introduces by being runtime linked.

Justin