How To Break The GPL

Martin Konold konold at alpha.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
Mon Mar 6 11:27:53 UTC 2000


On Sun, 5 Mar 2000, David Johnson wrote:

> On Sat, 04 Mar 2000, Ken Arromdee wrote:
> 
> > According to RMS, plugins are *also* derivative works, so both your examples
> > would come under the GPL.  (Which produces the odd result that it is legal
> > to write a GPL plugin for Internet Explorer but not for Netscape 4, since
> > Internet Explorer comes under the system component exception.)
> 
> At the risk of not showing proper deference, it doesn't matter much what RMS
> believes. He is not infallible. Of course I realize that he is the author of
> the license in question. However, he has already professed a strong bias in the
> matter. It is his bias that forces me to look elsewhere for objectivity.

Recent comments from RMS have shown that he does not accept the "system
component exception" anymore.

Regards,
-- martin

// Martin Konold, Stauffenbergstr. 107, 72074 Tuebingen, Germany  //   
KDE:  The most advanced GUI for a reliable OS.




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