[sf-lug] Potential GPL violation, with the potential intent to victimize our Elderly loved ones

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Shiloh (michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com):

> well, you can ask RMS about this on Monday

I know Richard well.  I know what he has to say on the subject.

Actually, though, he leaves commentary on most legal matters (detailed
ones, at least) to Prof. Moglen -- who tends to kind of talk arround the
subject of what "derivative work" really means in court, which isthe
only place thet matters.  But they are both of course completely clear
on the subject of "mere aggregation", having written that phrase into
the GPL in acknowledgement of the fundamental limits of copyright scope.

So, regarding something that's merely part of the same OS load as a
GPl-covered work, you're going to hear from them the same thing I said,
as it's pretty much a no-brainer.

Anyway, I just did something I'm not sure any of the prior commentors
bothered to do:  I downloaded Eldy 2.1 and looked for myself.  It's
mostly a bunch of Java bytecode, plus a couple of compiled libs and a
very small userspace app that invokes the libs.

Derivative work of the Linux kernel?  Hah, fat chance.

-- 
Cheers,                                      "Reality is not optional."
Rick Moen                                             -- Thomas Sowell
rick at linuxmafia.com