Re:Jury in Oracle v. Google finds in Google's favour
by belorn on Friday May 27, 2016 @12:35PM
(#11787120)
That is a very surface based interpretation of FSF stance on the subject. What I have heard from members of FSF board members is that the dynamic linking aspect of GPL is a simplified rule that a non-lawyer can use to identify when a derivative work is created.
The primary argument is the simple question: is there two disconnected works or a single work with separate parts, parts that exist either for technical reason or for plain arbitrary reasons. Software that is dynamically linked can't be run without the dynamic library, is dependent on the library, and generally has no purpose if you try to use it without the library. If a judge/jury member will view the complete work as the software+library, then the method of linking the two together is irrelevant.
The "first" case of this was a patch to GCC. The patch would not have much purpose without GCC. A common sense approach would be that the working Objective-C compile had two parts, the patch provided by apple and the compile provided by the GNU project. RMS initial thought like most programmers that since patches seems like separate parts than it was separate and disconnected works. However, it was unclear so he asked a lawyer and thought that a judge would not view it like that. From there the dynamic linking guideline came to be and that is where current thinking has stayed. Nothing about API is needed for this, and GPL would still work tomorrow if someone created a third method to link software together as a single work.
A interesting future case would be a program that is dynamically linked to a library that exist under several different licenses. Such software would have a strong argument to be disconnected from their library, but they would still be incomplete and a judge would likely put a lot of weight on the developers intention rather than any technical aspects.
The primary argument is the simple question: is there two disconnected works or a single work with separate parts, parts that exist either for technical reason or for plain arbitrary reasons. Software that is dynamically linked can't be run without the dynamic library, is dependent on the library, and generally has no purpose if you try to use it without the library. If a judge/jury member will view the complete work as the software+library, then the method of linking the two together is irrelevant.
The "first" case of this was a patch to GCC. The patch would not have much purpose without GCC. A common sense approach would be that the working Objective-C compile had two parts, the patch provided by apple and the compile provided by the GNU project. RMS initial thought like most programmers that since patches seems like separate parts than it was separate and disconnected works. However, it was unclear so he asked a lawyer and thought that a judge would not view it like that. From there the dynamic linking guideline came to be and that is where current thinking has stayed. Nothing about API is needed for this, and GPL would still work tomorrow if someone created a third method to link software together as a single work.
A interesting future case would be a program that is dynamically linked to a library that exist under several different licenses. Such software would have a strong argument to be disconnected from their library, but they would still be incomplete and a judge would likely put a lot of weight on the developers intention rather than any technical aspects.