Re: gEDA-user: firmware and the GPL license

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> So if I write a proprietary program the uses the Motif widget set

If your application was GPL...

If the Motif widget set comes with the operating system, the GPL has
an explicit exclusion for that.  If, however, you ship the Motif
widgets with your application, because they are both needed to use
your application, the GPL applies.  If you ship the Motif widgets on
the same CD because shipping it is fun and your application has
nothing to do with it, the GPL doesn't apply.

Gtk had this problem until it got popular enough to be included with
Linux by default.

In your actual case, you are not distributing any GPL'd code, so the
GPL doesn't apply to you anyway.  The GPL is about *distribution*, not
*use*.  An end-user can do whatever they want with GPL'd code, until
they want to share it.

Now, if you shipped a proprietary application that used the Lesstif
widget set, and you shipped the Lesstif libraries too, you'd be in
trouble.  (You'd have to imagine that Lesstif wasn't already included
in most Linux distros, but say you shipped it for some OS that didn't
have Lesstif or Motif already, like Windows.)


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