Re: On interpreting licences (was: KDE not in Debian?)
On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Raul Miller wrote:
> > b/c "executable work" as written in the quoted sentence above refers to the
> > executable work as it is being distributed, not as it exists at run-time).
>
> You're claiming here that even though Qt must be linked with kghostscript
> that the executing program doesn't contain Qt?
The executing program isn't relevant because the GPL doesn't specify the
conditions the program can be run under. It only specifies the conditions
the program can be distributed under.
> > I.e., the GPL does distinguish b/w dynamic and static linking.
>
> It doesn't even use the term "linking" in the terms of the license.
I think it does, by implication if not directly. If you link statically
with a proprietary library which is not part of the operating system then
you cannot distribute under the GPL. But you can if you link dynamically,
because you aren't distributing any proprietary code at all. You're just
assuming that the required proprietary code will already be on the target
system.
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