RE: MiNTlib and GPL was: RE: getopt

[Yves Pelletier <ypell@cam.org>]

On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Konrad Kokoszkiewicz wrote:

> > >AFAIK LGPL just say that source should be provided for the user without
> > >further cost (except for the media)?  Wouldn't it be enough just to
> > >include ftp addresses on common servers for these sources?
> > 
> > My understanding is that once you link to a LGPLed library, you have to 
> > release your programs in a way that the user himself can link the code to 
> > new versions of the library, which basically means as object files.
> > 
> > I don't think that everybody would be happy with that.
> 
> For example, who won't be?

Well for one thing it would make "conventional" shareware or
commercial development using the MiNTlibs quite a bit more
restrictive. Authors could distribute binary packages, but only
if they also provide a means for the user to re-link new or
modified versions of the library routines into the package.  In
practical terms, I could distribute foo.prg, but only if I also
make foo.o available so that Tom, Dick or Harry can link it with
their own library for their personal use.  

Now I think there are two separate questions here.  One is the
distribution of the MiNTlibs themselves, and the other is
distribution of the binaries compiled with them.  The fact that
there are LGPLed files in the MiNTlibs changes the conditions
under which the libs can be distributed, but it does not affect
the copyright status of source code files that came from other
sources.  I think what this means, is that if you compile a
program with the MiNTlibs and the result contains no object code
from a LGPLed file (in our case, libgcc2.c or obstack.c) then
you are free to distribute the binary as you please.  But since
all gcc-compiled programs probably contain code from
libgcc2/obstack, this places those binaries under the
distribution terms of the LGPL.  Pure C and Lattice binaries
probably escape them. 

The other big reason to be careful with the GPL, is that the
people who contributed (some of them unknowingly) to the MiNTlib
over the years did it unconditionally, and often stated it
explicitely.

Yves