Re: [Pspp-cvs] pspp/src regression.q

[Ben Pfaff]

Jason Stover <address@hidden> writes:

> I thought the output would be a 'derivative work' of PSPP, which would
> be covered by the GPL. Is that right? Maybe not. 

Does the output have PSPP code in it?  To be a derivative work,
it would have to contain PSPP code, as I understand copyright
law.

I was expecting the output to mostly be a bunch of numbers, with
a little bit of C wrapper code.  We don't try to GPL other
numbers that PSPP outputs.

> The output is a program written by another program, which is
> GPL'd, so is the output GPL'd?

I don't think that's true in general.  PSPP outputs PostScript
programs as output, but that's clearly not GPL'd.  Autoconf
outputs shell programs, but those aren't GPL'd (they have a very
permissive copyright notice).  The output of Bison is sometimes
GPL'd, but only when it contains part of Bison itself.
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