Can Java code EVER be GPLd, at all?

[Arandir]

On Sat, 13 Nov 1999, Justin Wells wrote:
> 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. 

Not at all. I'm assuming that your license would follow the typical free
software definition. If so, then I am not distributing, modifying, distributing
such modifications, or even *using* your source code. All I am doing is using
your binary in the manner in which it was intended.

Think about an off the wall example: a copylefted webpage. I would have to
follow the license if I used any of the html, java source, cgi scripts, etc, in
my own webpage, but other than a few wacko lawyers with nothing better to do,
it's perfectly fine for me to include a link to that site in mine.

>    --> 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. 

Absolutely! I've seen several GPL'd java programs. They exist, therefore it's
possible :-)

> 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. 

But java executables are fundamentally different than C executables. I'm not
a java expert, but it seems to me that they are meant to be distributed and run
differently. Trying to treat java like C would be like the post office trying
to sell stamps for email.

I would lighten up, and rest comfortably in the fact that no one can make your
java code "unfree". 

-- 
Arandir...
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