GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction

[Jim Choate]

Hi,

It has been asserted that the use of GNU code within a project causes that
product to be GPL'ed and as a result the GPL is not commercialy viable.

This is an incorrect interpretation.

The GPL does say that if you use GPL'ed code in your project then the
project is GPL'ed, it does NOT say that if you make function calls into a
GPL'ed library that the product is GPL'ed. This distinction makes fully
commercial and source-secure products within the GPL infrastructure possible
and feasible.


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