Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Sep 2010 21:52 UTC
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Member since:
2005-11-18
Indeed, it is not clear at all, and I agree with nt_jerkface that the GPL is far to ambiguous in this respect. Even if you believe that dynamic linking does not form a derivative work (which effectively makes the GPL a badly-worded LGPL). What if headers contain a significant amount of macros that do become part of your compiled program? What about C++ templates? And if C++ templates create a derivative work, isn't that weird (create an instantiation in the library and you are safe, create one in your code, and you are not)?
As many have come to find out, the GPL is a legal minefield. Sure, it has advantages if you embrace FLOSS ideals, want to force contribution of changes, or to give competitors an advantage they can run with (well, arguably only the AGPL helps fully). But it's a hell of a complicated license, and it's not strange companies want too touch it as little as possible.
Edited 2010-09-08 11:03 UTC