Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
At Sun, 12 Dec 2004 12:03:07 +0000, Philip Webster wrote:
I was under the impression that any code which links directly to a GPL'd library is essentially using part of a GPL-licensed work in the form of the method names it is calling, and as such by directly linking, becomes in itself a 'derivative work' which must be GPL licensed in order to be legally distributed.
That's indeed right. The problem is that I can't really make that up from the homepage. But if this is what the software does, then it is a GPL violation.
Jeroen Dekkers
I've contacted the author, and raised the points we have both covered on this list. I can report that this is in fact NOT a GPL violation, or at least so far as I can see. Here's how the RISC OS interface works:
GemPrint (the proprietary interface) links !Printers (the RISC OS printing system) to GIMP-Print (a Free printing system which supports many more models of printer than !Printers ever could.) !Printers is proprietary, and GemPrint links to it using what are essentially RISC OS libraries.
The link between GemPrint and GIMP-Print is done via a temp file. A RISC OS application invokes !Printers by requesting that something is printed, and !Printers calls GemPrint. GemPrint saves GIMP-Print compatible data to a file, and GIMP-Print comes along later, sees the file, and prints it.
GemPrint is careful never to directly invoke the GPL-licensed library at any time.
As far as I'm concerned, this means there is no GPL violation. Unless you can see anything wrong with the system as described above.
Phil