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Hi Nico!<br>
<br>
Good question.<br>
I see similar questions coming up quite frequently between me and my
colleagues!<br>
<br>
The "linking exception" you are referring to is probably one of the
following:<br>
1) The exception allowing works released under the GNU LGPL, the
"Lesser General Public License" [1,2] to be linked with works under
other licences.<br>
2) The GCC Runtime Library Exception, which allows works compiled
with the GNU C Compiler (GCC) to be released under a different
license. [3]<br>
<br>
I am not a lawyer, but...as far as I understand, this is rather
irrelevant in this case:<br>
<br>
A GPL-licensing of a web development framework has practically no
legal impact on the freedom of choice of license of the developed
web application, since the framework is not part of the "object
code" of the developed web application, but rather a separable and
independent "system library" in the terms of the GPL text.<br>
<br>
Similarly I may (if I wanted) legally develop a proprietary
software, written as a "bash" script, which makes use of "sed" and
other GNU core utilities, which are all released under the GNU GPL.
I may legally do that because they are not linked together and
distributed as one "object code", they just make use of each other,
but are clearly separable, both in source and in binary form (if
any). In this sense the GNU core utilities are a "development
framework" for bash scripts.<br>
<br>
For PHP development frameworks, we see a similar situation: <br>
There are various PHP scripts, which together form the development
framework. But each part and each PHP script of the development
framework is a separate file. And the web application, which I write
will be in other (separate) files again. Nothing will ever be linked
together into any "object code" and if distributed together, it will
be possible to separate the framework files from the application
files. So the GPL will cover all changes (if any) made to the
framework but it will not necessary affect any code licensing of the
web application I wrote within other files.<br>
<br>
GNU-people, lawyers, please correct me if I'm wrong! ;)<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Jann<br>
<br>
--<br>
REFs:<br>
[1]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License#Differences_from_the_GPL">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License#Differences_from_the_GPL</a><br>
[2] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html">https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html</a><br>
[3] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception.html">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
On 23/09/15 16:40, Nicolas JEAN wrote:<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Hi all,<br>
> <br>
> I'm looking into Symfony right now, and this stopped my
reading: " 8.<br>
> License Licenses are important simply because they can have a<br>
> significant impact on your applications. For example, an
application<br>
> developed using a GPL-licensed framework will necessarily be
subject<br>
> to GPL. On the other hand, this is not the case for an
MIT-licensed<br>
> framework. " <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://symfony.com/ten-criteria">http://symfony.com/ten-criteria</a><br>
> <br>
> This seems untrue for several reasons, at best not worded
very<br>
> carefully. As I understand it, for example, using a GPL
framework<br>
> probably does not make your project "necessarily subject to"
the GPL.<br>
> Anyone more on this? Isn't that exactly what the GPL linking<br>
> exception is for?<br>
> <br>
> What do you people of the Free Software think? :)<br>
> <br>
> Nico</span><br>
<br>
<br>
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