Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] GNURadio and GPL licensing issues

[David Nesting]

On Sat, Nov 20, 2004 at 02:00:42PM -0800, John Gilmore wrote:
> 
> If you call GPL'd code via an API, though, you are forming a single
> program and must make your whole program GPL.  *Unless* that API is a

Only if making use of the API requires you to make use of GPLed code
within your own application.  Linking to a GPLed library, for example,
requires you to incorporate a certain amount of the original application
within your own, even if it's just enough to allow your application
to use a GPLed shared library, thus (for some definitions) making it
a derivative work.

If I can implement that API without incorporating someone else's
copyrighted work within my own, though, I have no copyright obligations
to the owner of that original work, thus no GPL obligations.

> What you, I, or Eric think about how the GPL applies is ultimately
> irrelevant, though.  The Free Software Foundation owns the code.  It

This is a great point.  The GPL is really a license granted from one
stranger to another.  You're *always* able to secure your own independent
license under its own terms directly from the copyright holders.  It's
hard to do that with there are a hundred different authors, but if the
contributions are ultimately donated back to the original holder, this
becomes practical.

So if there's any confusion about the way you want to use GNU Radio
and whether or not the GPL allows you to do it, maybe all you need to
do is e-mail the FSF, tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
explicit permission.

David

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