From: fjh AT cs DOT mu DOT oz DOT au (Fergus Henderson) Subject: Re: Cygnus used in a Product ? 19 Oct 1997 21:24:14 -0700 Message-ID: <199710200412.OAA31358.cygnus.gnu-win32@mundook.cs.mu.OZ.AU> References: <199710181914 DOT MAA27981 AT pacific DOT pgroup DOT com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: lfm AT pgroup DOT com (Larry Meadows) Cc: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Larry Meadows, you wrote: > > In other words, as long as I just use the Cygwin32 DLL(s) along with the > > header files to compile and link my application, I can distribute my > > application along with the Cygwin32 DLLs (plus maybe the sources for the > > DLLs), but I am not forced to publish the sources for my application? > > That's not true according to cygnus. Cygnus have been changing their tune. > Note that the cygwin32 stuff is under > the GPL, not the LGPL; so the fact that you link against it requires > you to distribute your source. That's not correct. The requirements of the GPL apply only if your work is a derived work. Merely linking against a DLL does not necessarily make your work a derived work. > The following is a quote from the > FAQ (http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/faq.html): > > The Cygwin32 API library found in the winsup subdirectory of the source code is now also covered by the GNU GPL. Since by default all > executables link against this library, programs compiled by the beta 17 tools will also have to be free software distributed under the GPL > with source code available to all. Well, Cygnus can put such statements in the FAQ list if they want, I guess, but being in the FAQ list won't make them correct. If Cygnus actually give such statements some legal teeth (e.g. by releasing B19 with a license that does not allow free use of libcygwin.a), then there are a number of people who are ready to fork a new stream of development from the existing B18 sources. (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Yadda yadda yadda...) -- Fergus Henderson | "I have always known that the pursuit WWW: | of excellence is a lethal habit" PGP: finger fjh AT 128 DOT 250 DOT 37 DOT 3 | -- the last words of T. S. Garp. - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".