Re: What happen if... (related GPL & src)

[Robert Dewar <dewar at gnat dot com>]

Ian Lance Taylor wrote:

> My answer is that your compiler is covered by the GPL if it is a
> derivative work of gcc.  When is it a derivative work?  Nobody can
> tell you for sure, as the notion of a derivative work in software is
> not spelled out by law or by the court system.  Taking an idea from
> gcc and reimplementing it yourself will probably not itself cause your
> implementation to be a derivative work.
>
> Ian

I know this is off topic, but Ian answered it, so it seems appropriate
to correct some possible misconceptions.

First of all, nothing is ever automatically covered by the GPL. There is
no such concept as automatic coverage. A license in a case like this is
something that is offered by the creator to a potential user. It's really
important to emphasize this point, since the idea that your work can be
automatically covered by the GPL is one that opponents of free software
often erroneously present ("be careful about using Linux, you may
automatically lose your IPR to your software" -- I use Linux deliberately
in this quote (rather than GNU/Linux), since the opponents of Free Software
rarely give GNU credit :-(

The actual situation is that if you derive something from a work for
which you have a GPL license, then this license specifically allows
you to create deriviative works for your own use without limitation.

If you  want to distribute this deriviative work to others, then you
need a license to do this. The GPL serves as such a license, provided
that *you* make the decision to distribute the entire deriviative work
under the GPL.

If you don't want to make your work available under the GPL, then you
can either avoid distributing it, or you can see if the author of the
original work will provide some other kind of licensing rights.

If you distribute the derived work without granting a GPL license, then
that's a potential copyright violation, which the original author can
pursue, but there is no issue of the work being automatically covered
by the GPL.