hypothetical(?) GPL problem

[Frank Heckenbach]

Marc Eberhard wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 12:38:21AM +0200, Frank Heckenbach wrote:
> > > Thus a program can become free by more
> > > and more free parts in it. It's a matter of time. Each piece of free
> > > software in a closed source program is one secret less, they have in their
> > > safes.
> > 
> > As long as they can't make secret changes in those pieces (LGPL
> > prevent this, as any changes to the library itself must be
> > distributed with source when distributing a binary based on the
> > library).
> 
> Dynamic libraries should also be quite efficient from a practical point of
> view. If the program uses a "standard" shared lib on the system, it is
> impossible to modify the free library, at least impossible for the evil
> closed source software company.

Yep -- and if they link statically, they have to provide object
files and the source of any changes they make to the library (LGPL).

Frank

-- 
Frank Heckenbach, frank at g-n-u.de
http://fjf.gnu.de/
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