Thread: GPL violation?
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Old 03-01-2008, 03:37 AM   #46
HarryT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney View Post
The GPL is a "viral" license: code that links against GPL code becomes GPL in consequence.

But this only covers code that links against GPL code. Code that simply runs under Linux does not become GPL, and can be closed source and proprietary.
With respect, Dennis, that is not the case - at least not with the GPL code that I've come across personally. If it were the case, it would be impossible to write any commercial Linux application, because every application links against the Linux system libraries.

The GPL libraries that I've used personally simply stipulate that:

a) You state in the program's documentation or "About" box that the library is being used by the application.

b) You tell anyone who asks where to get the source code for the library.

Using such a GPL library does not make your code GPL. Perhaps there are GPL libraries which do have that stipulation, but I've not encountered them if there are.
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