Re: Virtually Zero-Overhead Object Management is neither free software nor open source software

[David Schwartz]

On Oct 10, 5:41 pm, "Chris Thomasson" <cris...@comcast.net> wrote:

> I read that as any product that links with a GPL'd library has to be free
> software.

That's a commonly-made but nonsensical claim. That could only be true
if a linker could create a derivative work. That could only be true if
a linker could create a new work (since a derivative work is a new
work, distinct from the work it is derivative of). But a linker has no
creativity, it's purely a mechanical process. It can't create a new
work, so it can't create a new derivative work.

If you take two works, A and B, and feed them into a linker, all you
can get out is A and B, perhaps combined with each other and bits of
the linker. If you could get a new work that way, the linker would be
entitled to copyright on the new work (since it made it), which is
nonsensical.

DS