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GPL and Python modules.

Robert Kern rkern at ucsd.edu
Mon Oct 25 20:52:42 EDT 2004 
Robert Kern wrote:
> Tim Churches wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 2004-10-26 at 09:29, Cliff Wells wrote:
> 
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>> If this is true, I can't think of any way for a program to run on a
>>> GPL'd system (such as Linux) without becoming GPL'd itself (Unless it
>>> doesn't do any I/O or malloc any memory <wink>). 
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes. It seems to be them is some dissonance between these two positions:
>>
>> "It is OK for a closed-source application to allocate memory on a system
>> running the GPLed Linux kernel"
>>
>> and
>>
>> "It is not OK for a GPL-incompatible Python application to import GPLed
>> code into the runtime namespace it is using."
>>
>> I shudder to think what a judge and jury would make of such a
>> distinction. 
> 
> 
> I'm sure they would see the explicit exception made in the GPL:
> 
> """
> However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not 
> include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or 
> binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of 
> the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component 
> itself accompanies the executable.
> """

Excuse me. I am retarded. Please ignore me.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter
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