Fedora/RH policies sometimes suck

[Les Mikesell]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:

>>>
>>> Do you mean bundled together? You can certainly do that. A copyright 
>>> license cannot outright restrict mere bundles of unrelated components.
>>
>> I mean as described by the GPL - in anything that can be construed as 
>> a derived work containing any GPL'd code.  Such a thing can't be 
>> distributed unless GPL terms can apply to the work as a whole. 
> 
> GPL license does not involve unrelated components. You claimed that a 
> combination is not possible. 

I've never claimed anything about unrelated components.  I've only 
mentioned Linux and the GPL'd parts of the distribution.

> It certainly is. The restrictions on a 
> copyright license can only apply to code that uses it. Merely combining 
> components cannot ever be restricted by a copyright license.

You have to define 'components' in an odd way to make that statement. 
Aggregating unrelated programs is permitted. Components like library 
functions are not.  Kernel modules and plugin linkages are questionable.
The FSF position - as taken in the RIPEM case - has been that if a GPL'd 
component is necessary for functionality, any program using it must also 
be GPL'd even if they aren't distributed together.

>>>  The only way a product that includes GPL'd code can
>>>> contain any of those things is if someone buys the right to allow 
>>>> unlimited free redistribution and there is no practical way for many 
>>>> users to share the cost of that.
>>>
>>> Not true as has been indicated many times to you before. Look at 
>>> Freespire for example. They have patent licenses and include 
>>> proprietary codecs for gratis.
>>
>> Lots of places do lots of things that are not permitted by the GPL so 
>> I can't comment on whether this is a valid counterexample or not.
> 
> It is. Do your basic fact checks before you repeatedly claim things 
> which are not true.

I'm claiming nothing except what the GPL explicitly states.

 > A Linux distribution can definitely include code
> with different restrictions from GPL. In fact pretty much all the Linux 
> distributions do that.

Yes, there are many aggregated programs that have no GPL content at all 
and thus do not suffer from its restrictions.  That is a very good 
thing. However, the kernel is not one of them.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com