GPL with the Classpath exception - clarification needed

[Alon von Bismark]

2009/3/27 Wilson, Andrew <andrew.wilson at intel.com>:
>
> John Cowan [mailto:cowan at ccil.org] wrote:
>
>> The relevant distinction for LGPL purposes is not whether something is
>> a derivative work or not: every program that incorporates the library
>> into itself is a derivative work.  The question is whether the derivative
>> work is a "work based on the Library" (LGPL 2.1) / "Modified Version of
>> the Library" (LGPL 3.0) or not.
>
> With you so far.  Linking to an LGPL library creates a derivative work which
> is governed by LGPL.
>
>> Now subclassing a class plainly does not *modify* the class.  So programs
>> that contain subclasses of an LGPLed class, or instantiations of an
>> LGPLed interface, or what have you, are "works that use the Library"
>> (LGPL 2.1) / "Applications" (LGPL 3.0) and may be under any license
>> provided it is possible to replace the library.
>
> Not quite with you here. Agreed subclassing does not *modify* the base class.
> However, are there possible circumstances where a subclass is a derivative
> in the copyright sense?  If the answer is yes, the rest of your analysis is moot.
> Such a subclass, or instantiation, is not a "work that uses the Library."
> It is a "work based on the Library," and it is LGPL.
> The only exception for a derivative under copyright is the familiar #include rule.
>
> As LGPLv2.1 helpfully notes, "the object code for the work may be a derivative
> work of the Library even though the source code is not.... The threshold for this
> to be true is not precisely defined by law."
>
> Andy Wilson
> Intel open source technology center
>

I doubt it.

For starters:

http://www.usfca.edu/law/determann/softwarecombinations060403.pdf
http://www.law.washington.edu/LCT/Events/FOSS/MootFacts.pdf
http://www.law.washington.edu/LCT/Events/FOSS/OmegaBrief.pdf
http://www.law.washington.edu/LCT/Events/FOSS/AlphaBrief.pdf
http://www.law.washington.edu/LCT/Events/FOSS/media/03.%20Beyond%20the%20Basics%20-%20Moot%20Court.mp3

-alvbi

--
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