Subject: Re: cygwin license with windows apps?
From: Sam Steingold <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: 20 Jun 2003 12:35:00 -0400

> * In message <[email-masked]>
> * On the subject of "RE: cygwin license with windows apps?"
> * Sent on Fri, 20 Jun 2003 12:18:41 -0400
> * Honorable Cary Lewis <[email-masked]> writes:
>
> Why is it that linking to the cygwin.dll makes a program covered by GPL?

because GPL says so:

"This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you
may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications
with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library
General Public License instead of this License."

> On Linux systems, does linking to the open source 'C' libraries,
> etc. cause a program to be covered by the GPL?

GNU GPL is _NOT_ GNU LGPL.
GNU libc (glibc) is under LGPL, not GPL.
cygwin is undef GPL, not LGPL.

> I have trouble believing that there are systems out there that use
> cygwin in a commercial fashion that have not purchased the breakout
> license.

"commercial fashion" != "proprietary fashion".

those who _distribute_ _proprietary_ code linked with cygwin without
purchasing the breakout license are breaking the law.

IANAL.

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Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds) running RedHat9 GNU/Linux
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