GPL tools and proprietary software

[Kevin Buettner]

On Dec 11,  8:57am, William Lindley wrote:

> > If the library is GPL, then you are incorporating GPL code into yours
> 
> But with runtime (dynamic) linking, you're not including the GPL code. 
>  You're just asking for a library  by that name.  It could be anybody's 
> library... so GPL shouldn't enter the picture with dynamic linking, right?

I think you're right about this, so long as you do not distribute a
GPL'd library with a program having an incompatible license which
uses that library.  Also, the program in question should not be built
using header files from a GPL'd library.  (Though LGPL'd ones are
okay.)

>From a practical standpoint, this effectively means that the program
in question must be developed and built using a non-GPL'd
implementation of the library.  Once it's distributed, if the end user
chooses to use a GPL'd version of the library, then that's his concern,
not the distributer's.

For more on this matter, see:

    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html

Kevin