[Mono-list] The license problem

[Paolo Molaro]

First of all, the GPL license is not viral. If anyone wants to argue
about that point he can do so in gnu.misc.discuss, mono-list is not the
proper place for people that want to diss the GPL. All the licenses have
conditions, if you're not happy with the licence, don't use the code
under that license and rewrite your own, it's that simple: the issue is
the same with all the licenses.

On 05/23/02 Brad Wilson wrote:
> As a software author, I may not be consciously targeting Mono. After all,
> one of the driving forces behind Mono is to be able to run code that was
> written for Microsoft's .NET implementation unchanged. What if I write code
> that calls CodeDOM? You can't force me to release my code under GPL, just
> because some end user plugged my code into Mono instead of MS .NET.

Of course not, only microsoft wants you to believe that.

> In general, releasing libraries under GPL is a big problem when those
> libraries are hooked together at runtime instead of compile time, and are
> intended to replace a library released under a non-GPL license. You can't
> realistically prove that the author intended it to be used with your GPL'd
> library.

Well, it's as much a problem of the GPL as it is of the application that
wants to use it. If the application can't be linked to a GPL library, it
can't be distributed for use in that way. It can be used on some
other system that provides a compatible library, though.

As it happens with all the licenses, you can negotiate with the
copyright holder, change your license, or rewrite your own.

Anyone that wants to continue the thread should really put his money
(or his code) where his mouth is.

lupus

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