Using of parse tree externally

[Linus Torvalds]

On 12 Oct 2000, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Oct 12, 2000, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> wrote:
> 
> > There's also obviously the simple legal issue: if somebody actually
> > wants to fork gcc, and create a gcc that prints out the parse tree
> > externally, the FSF simply doesn't have any legal power to stop them. 
> 
> Isn't there any way the GCC license could be written so as to make any
> such output a derived work, thereby requiring other programs that use
> it to be GPLed too?

I don't think so.

If the output actually contained parts of gcc itself, then there might be
a valid case that you have "tainted" the output with copyrighted material,
and as such the copyright extends to the output itself. 

But for a plain parse tree? I don't see how anybody could successfully
defend that falling under the GPL. After all, a compiler is nothing but a
language transformation tool, and there is no real conceptual difference
between a parse tree output and an assembly file output. 

>	  I see it might be hard to draw a line separating
> the assembly output generated by GCC, that shouldn't be covered by
> this restriction, from such unwanted uses, but that might be a way to
> legally forbid any such unwanted uses of GCC.  But then, IANAL :-)

I don't understand why people would really want to do this. At least
people who argue for "freedom". 

Freedom is not about forcing your opinions on everybody else.

		Linus