Manuals, software, programs (Re: Savannah rejects a project because it uses GPL)

Alfred M. Szmidt ams at gnu.org
Mon Feb 13 19:55:11 UTC 2006


   A license like the GPL grants freedom to perform acts on something.
   Given your definitions so far, what category of thing do you
   believe a license like the GPL applies to? Software? Programs?
   Data? Manuals?  Some combination? Some other set? Please inform us,
   so we know what you're saying.

Software; which is a combination of program and source code.

   Does your defintion of "the program" include both source code and
   executable forms, if the two happen to be separate?

No.


Since this is getting hairy, I snipped large parts of your message,
and will answer it in one go instead (it was all about what my
definition of software, and program is).

Program ::= binary data that can be executed by a computer.

Source code ::= Something that can be converted to binary data that
                can be executed by a computer (either in one, or
                several steps)

Software ::= Any of these two.

Data ::= Manuals, music, ...

That is what I have used for many years anyway.



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