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GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

gdamore.blogspot.com

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Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#11

Post by cjbprime »

jlgreco wrote: post #7

Why should distributing GNU grep necessitate releasing the source of other things that you distribute? It only seems obvious to me that they would then have to distribute the source of GNU grep. Are they linking to grep but grep doesn't have the linking exception?

You're correct. There is no circumstance under which he's compelled to open up his source code.

If the hardware system he's selling has some kind of crypto (like login passwords that you don't know!) that disallows modifications to the base system, GPLv3 can require you to give up enough control to let the user install their modified grep too. (That's still not giving away your source code, but it is more than just giving out the source code to grep.)

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#15

Post by jlgreco »

zimbatm wrote: post #9

GPL3 is restricted to the boundaries of the executable so he would just have to give access to the grep source code if/when requested. End of story.

Yeah, that is my thought too. Maybe he thinks including a call to grep that the users shell would read/fork/exec is a type of linking? Seems like a stretch.

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#16

Post by kstrauser »

[deleted] wrote: post #12
zimbatm wrote: post #9

GPL3 is restricted to the boundaries of the executable so he would just have to give access to the grep source code if/when requested. End of story.

[deleted]

That's a unique interpretation of the GPL shared by no one else I've ever talked to.

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#17

Post by sigzero »

eternalban wrote: post #13

"But if you're a business trying to create value, this is actively harmful." Your sense of entitlement is mind boggling. /Someone/ wrote the code you are complaining about and /their/ idea of /value/ is that it should be open sourced under a "viral" license.

I don't believe he is stating the point at all. He is not arguing the source code for GNU grep.

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#18

Post by cjbprime »

[deleted] wrote: post #12
zimbatm wrote: post #9

GPL3 is restricted to the boundaries of the executable so he would just have to give access to the grep source code if/when requested. End of story.

[deleted]

Untrue.

> By contrast, pipes, sockets and command-line arguments are communication mechanisms normally used between two separate programs. So when they are used for communication, the modules normally are separate programs. - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#19

Post by saidajigumi »

mikeash wrote: post #4
fennecfoxen wrote: post #3

"Because that one little "worm" - used simply to support a startup script, could have created a situation where we would have been required to open source our entire product." Someone assist in my enlightenment: Under what sort of enforcement circumstances would that requirement to open-source a lot of code actually be likely? As opposed to some enforcement action where you remove the offending code.

As far as I know, this can't happen. The author is being highly paranoid, presumably due to being misinformed.

Yeah. This company was about to distribute GNU grep, meaning that they would be obligated to provide source for that version of grep, and likewise for any modifications to grep they've made. Yawn.

Re: GNU grep - A Cautionary Tale About GPLv3

#20

Post by sigzero »

[deleted] wrote: post #12
zimbatm wrote: post #9

GPL3 is restricted to the boundaries of the executable so he would just have to give access to the grep source code if/when requested. End of story.

[deleted]

There is no way on God's green Earth that you can say his product is a derived work of GNU grep because it is used in the way he describes. At the very least, they just have to provide the source for grep.
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