[Gcl-devel] GCL compliance with GNU GPL

[Sam Steingold]

According to <http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gcl>,
GCL (GNU Common Lisp) <http://www.gnu.org/software/gcl/>
is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License.

OTOH, GCL uses GNU readline for input, see e.g.,
<http://article.gmane.org/gmane.lisp.gcl.devel/1672>.

GNU readline is covered by the GNU GPL, not GNU LGPL, therefore any
program that links with it must also be covered by the GNU GPL, see
<http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/clisp/clisp/doc/Why-CLISP-is-under-GPL?rev=HEAD>.

Therefore GCL is in violation of the GNU GPL license.

I tried to bring this issue to the GCL's maintainers' attention in
<http://article.gmane.org/gmane.lisp.gcl.devel/1622>, but to no avail.

Moreover, I was surprised to find out that GCL's license has been
"verified" (http://www.gnu.org/directory/GCL.html).
I wonder what the process of verification is.

It is conceivable that GCL has been granted a special dispensation to
use GNU readline and still be covered by LGPL, but this issue is not
clarified on the GCL web page.

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds) running w2k
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