On Monday, 10. September 2007, J-P Stacey wrote:
However, the virality stops at certain boundaries, doesn't it? If not, then:
* How does Cygwin survive, translating the calls of potentially GPL programs to the language of the wholeheartedly un-GPL OS it sits in? By extension, how does any GPL program conscience working on Windows (by which I don't mean morally....)? How can something like Automatix work, sprinkling software of all sorts of licences like fairy dust through your Ubuntu box?
* How can you build GPL webservice clients, and would their use in requesting data or processing from a non-GPLed webservice count as licence infringement? What would a GPLed webservice even look like? Richard Stallman, I think, is on record as saying that the proprietary nature of services such as Amazon's doesn't bother him, but it bothers other people.
* How does networking software not transmit the GPL in its very packets, when it lets proprietary and GPL software communicate and potentially share processing?
I don't want to be rude, but all of these questions have already been answered in this thread. Before another well-explained, but extensive Thomas Barregren mail is coming up again, I suggest you look it up by yourself. Yeah, I know it's daunting to read and understand all of this thread, it's too large already.