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Re: Including free compiler in a comercial software
On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 20:15 -0400, Robert Dewar wrote:
> Michael Meissner wrote:
>
> > If you are including GCC in your program, your program needs to be licensed
> > such to allow this (typically gplv3). If you are just providing the compiler
> > as a separate package without modifications, then this is a much simpler matter
> > (this is allowed under section 4 of the gplv3). You really would need to talk
> > to a lawyer to get an understanding of the rules and regulations for anything
> > complicated (hint, most of the people reading this mailing list are not
> > lawyers).
>
> That's fair advice, but if all you want to do is to include a standard
> version of gcc with sources as part of your package, that does not count
> as complicated, and all you have to do is to include the file COPYING3
> with a note that it refers to the included gcc compiler.
Yes, for verbatim copies, you can include the sources in toto. Quoting
from the gplv3:
4. Conveying Verbatim Copies.
You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you
receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice;
keep intact all notices stating that this License and any
non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code;
keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all
recipients a copy of this License along with the Program.
You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey,
and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.
My point was if you've modified the compiler sources in any way, then
you must follow section 5:
5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.
You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to
produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the
terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified
it, and giving a relevant date.
b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is
released under this License and any conditions added under section
7. This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to
"keep intact all notices".
c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this
License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This
License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7
additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts,
regardless of how they are packaged. This License gives no
permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not
invalidate such permission if you have separately received it.
d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your
work need not make them do so.
A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent
works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work,
and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program,
in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an
"aggregate" if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not
used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work
in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other
parts of the aggregate.
And if you provide binaries, then section 6 applies.