Re: License issue, and a possible solution

Alexander Terekhov <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.xfree86.forum
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Kurt Fitzner wrote:
[...]
> I'm still hoping that we might see some sort of reply from Georgina (or
> someone else of authority) on the issue of the client library header
> file licensing.  Anyone willing to step up to bat on this?  Anyone?

FSF's "GPL incompatibility" claims are barred by the doctrine 
of copyright misuse and the doctrine of first sale. As for 
"incorporation" of headers...

http://digital-law-online.com/lpdi1.0/treatise27.html

<quote>

It could be argued that the component program really does include 
portions of the library that it uses – data structures that are 
passed as parameters, or even the parameter lists themselves. But 
elements dictated by external considerations are filtered out when 
trying to determine whether there is copyright infringement.

No other conclusion makes sense. If it were not the case, then 
any program using the applications program interfaces (APIs) of 
an operating system could be considered a derivative work of that 
operating system. And, under the exclusive right to prepare 
derivative works, the copyright owner of an operating system such 
as Microsoft Windows could control who was allowed to write 
programs for that operating system.

</quote>

regards,
alexander.
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