A second life for 'Second Life' with open source? (LinuxWorld)

Posted Nov 3, 2007 6:07 UTC (Sat) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: A second life for 'Second Life' with open source? (LinuxWorld) by JoeBuck
Parent article: A second life for 'Second Life' with open source? (LinuxWorld)

it's hard to argue that the libraries are derivitives of the GPL code when they existed first.


copyright can only affect derivitive works

you could try to argue that the binary is a derivitive of the GPL source and the propriatary
libraries, but that wouldn't prevent anyone from distributing the source plus the libraries,
but be careful of that argument, would that mean that all the GPL code that existed before
glibc was illegal becouse it linked to a propriatary libc?

A second life for 'Second Life' with open source? (LinuxWorld)

Posted Nov 3, 2007 10:42 UTC (Sat) by ewan (guest, #5533) [Link] (1 responses)

No, because the 'System libraries' exception would cover that, as it does 
building GPL software on proprietary OSes today.

A second life for 'Second Life' with open source? (LinuxWorld)

Posted Nov 3, 2007 11:50 UTC (Sat) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Well plus since they are the copyright holders of the GPL'd code they can do pretty much
whatever they want. 

It's very troublesome, unfortunately, for redistributers and end users that want to modify and
distribute upgrades. 

All in all this is still a good gesture and I, for one, am gratefull that they are at least
making a serious attempt at free software. I am going to have to take a second look at second
life. :)