[Python-Dev] (libffi) Re: Copyright issue (original) (raw)

Bill Northcott w.northcott at internode.on.net
Sat Jan 28 02:04:50 CET 2006

On 28/01/2006, at 10:41 AM, Martin v. Löwis wrote:

You misunderstand the GPL. Section 2b) is pretty clear that any application that contains GPL-licensed code must be, itself, distributed under the terms ofthe GPL

Quite so, but using the autotools does NOT include any GPL code in
the resulting program. So this does not apply. All that is needed
is to include in the source distribution a copy of GPL, note that GPL
applies to some files in the sources and ensure that copyright
notices at the heads of GPL files are intact.

The compiler needs specific exemptions because parts of the GPLed
runtime libraries are included in all compiled code. No part of the
autotools ends up in the finished code. If it did, you would need m4
to run Python and you don't.

Cheers Bill Northcott

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