CORBA and the GPL (was Re: Can Java code EVER be GPLd, at all?)

[Ean R . Schuessler]

Java's RMI facility makes inter-process calls a bit more transparent
than CORBA. Since Java provides a platform neutral programming environment
it is possible to pass objects by value rather than by reference when
making a method call. This facility can make an remotely "linked" object
almost indifferentiable from a local one. Therefore, some GPL'd 
infrastructure could be exported via the RMI mechanism and still retain
great utility. 

This is why I use the LGPL for Java code, since it focuses on the stored
format of the source as opposed to its runtime mechanics. Additionally,
I am forced to work with commercial systems regularly and the LGPL is
well suited to that situation.

On Sun, Nov 21, 1999 at 05:51:04PM -0700, Richard Stallman wrote:
> It is possible to use CORBA to do something more or less equivalent
> to linking, but it is somewhat more painful.  So the GPL will still
> be effective, even though not 100%, even if CORBA is never considered
> to make a combined program.
> 
>     The situation is practically the same in many Java programs, 
> 
> My understanding is that normal practice with Java is that programs
> link together dynamically.  That is not analogous to CORBA.  Of
> course, Java may have CORBA facilities or CORBA-like facilities.
> 
>     You might think it isn't a problem because, for efficiency purposes, 
>     someone wouldn't ordinarily do this--but CORBA optimizes things quite 
>     well when the target of a call and its caller are both inside the 
>     same process. 
> 
> When they are in the same process, that makes it more like linking.
> 
> More generally, what you are discovering is that any definitive
> criterion based solely on the mechanism of communication is likely to
> give silly and arbitrary results.  That's why I don't advocate a
> criterion of that kind.
> 

-- 
___________________________________________________________________
Ean Schuessler                   An oderless programmer work-a-like
Novare International Inc.                     Silent and motionless
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