Re: [vox-tech] GPL license clarification

[Micah Cowan <micah@cowanbox.cMAPSom>]

On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 04:44:46PM -0700, Mark K. Kim wrote:
> Great!  Thank you, Micah and Henry.
> 
> At the moment, whoever with an access to the binaries has full access to
> the source.
> 
> BTW, does the program still need to be under GPL?
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
> -Mark

It needs to be under the GPL (or in some cases, LGPL) if:

1. Any of your program is derived from GPL'd code
2. You are statically linking to GPL'd or LGPL'd code
3. You are dynamically linking to GPL'd code

Otherwise, no.  As mentioned before, it wouldn't be *too* hard to
write your own getopt() to avoid the troubles.  Avoid looking at the
GPL'd version if you can, to avoid writing "too closely" to it (same
technique the FSF used against proprietary UNIX code).  If you have
access to the POSIX spec (yeah, right), or some UNIX manual, that
should be enough.  Actually, the best thing to write to would be your
GNU getopt manpage, if you were to make your own.  I might write one
for you for kicks if I have the time ;).

Micah