Is the GPL actually viral across dynamic linking?

Posted Nov 20, 2024 2:15 UTC (Wed) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325)
In reply to: Is the GPL actually viral across dynamic linking? by nix
Parent article: Two approaches to tightening restrictions on loadable modules

> US law is much more about fiddly nailing-down-of-tiny-details, where UK law goes in for broad swaths and letting courts decide the fine details in ways that make sense at the time, and then letting precedent force consistency in future.

You're thinking of European law. US (statutory) law absolutely does not nail down the fiddly little details of derivative works, it just gives a one-paragraph definition and lets the courts work it out:

> A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.

(17 USC 101)

Is the GPL actually viral across dynamic linking?

Posted Nov 20, 2024 12:28 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

I was actually getting it mixed up with other parts of the US legal code (particularly financial regulation), which very much do the "insane complexity and nail down every tiny rule". Too tired, shouldn't have been posting...