xgettext (Re: replication of stuff in /usr/gnu)

[Nicolas Williams]

On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 07:03:57AM -0700, Darren.Reed at Sun.COM wrote:
> In the non-GPL open source communities that I watch, there is
> very real fear about what you're wary of (infection of others
> through use/linking) but nobody yet has a solid legal opinion.

There is no infection through use of GPL'ed CLI interfaces, the only
exception to which being programs that output their own source (e.g.,
bison's output used to be encumbered) -- xgettext does not fall into
that category.

Now, the _libraries_ that GNU xgettext comes with are another story, but
we already ship GNU libs in /usr/sfw and /usr/gnu, so this too is
nothing new -- the key thing here is that Sun products that aren't
GPL'ed shouldn't link to such libraries in any way without Legal
approval (which most likely you couldn't get).  Shipping != linking.
And using != linking.

Nico
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