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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: Re: Software Licensing; the GNU GPL and EPICS
From: Timo Korhonen <[email protected]>
To: Benjamin Franksen <[email protected]>
Cc: EPICS Techtalk <[email protected]>, Andrew Johnson <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 22:49:30 +0000
Benjamin Franksen wrote:

> just a question: What about the GNU Bison stuff that is distributed as
> part of the EPICS base?

An excerpt from the GPL FAQ:

> Can I use GPL-covered editors to develop non-free programs? Can I use GPL-covered tools to compile them?
>
>        Yes, because the copyright on the editors and tools does not cover the code you write.
>
> Some programs copy parts of themselves into the output for technical reasons--for example, Bison copies a standard parser program into its output
> file. In such cases, the copied text in the output is covered by the same license that covers it in the source code. Meanwhile, the part of the output
> which is derived from the program's input inherits the copyright status of the input.
>
> As it happens, Bison can also be used to develop non-free programs. This is because we decided to explicitly permit the use of the Bison standard
> parser program in Bison output files without restriction. We made the decision because there were other tools comparable to Bison which already
> permitted use for non-free programs.
>
>

In my interpretation, Bison should be no problem for EPICS.  (but quoting
Andrew: IANAL, TINLA.
How did I get into this, anyway??)
In a broader context, FSF relaxes the license conditions (like in LGPL)
when there is software with
equal capabilities available commercially.  Bison and GNU libc are
examples.

Thank you Andrew for the excellent summary. It did not add to my
headache, at least immediately, but
was a welcome clarification of the issues.


Timo


 --
 Timo Korhonen  PSI (Paul Scherrer Institut), SLS
                CH-5232 Villigen PSI
                tel + 41- 56 3103262  fax + 41 - 56 310 3151
 e-mail:              [email protected]







References:
Re: Platform independent Gui toolkits john sinclair
Re: Platform independent Gui toolkits Korhonen Timo
Software Licensing; the GNU GPL and EPICS Andrew Johnson
Re: Software Licensing; the GNU GPL and EPICS Benjamin Franksen

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