From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Joost Kremers Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Packages, release notes, etc Date: 11 Sep 2015 00:16:55 GMT Message-ID: References: <87io7iochh.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1441930840 24887 80.91.229.3 (11 Sep 2015 00:20:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 00:20:40 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Sep 11 02:20:25 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZaC4h-0001V2-AJ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Sep 2015 02:20:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53047 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZaC4g-0005O7-Og for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:20:18 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 37 Original-X-Trace: individual.net ApVKV3rouyoFEr9sko6sLAWDt6kV7GC8tn1Aa+sQpup6VGTL6i Cancel-Lock: sha1:xb0ckX3uQcnp5eh43QHQrqprNPs= Mail-Copies-To: nobody X-Editor: Emacs of course! User-Agent: slrn/pre1.0.0-18 (Linux) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:214847 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:107131 Archived-At: Tassilo Horn wrote: > But what's the purpose of the copyleft when I can release a derived work > basing on GPL code under a GPL-compatible license which has no copyleft > anymore, e.g., Apache License, Version 2.0? But what's a derived work? IANAL but according to Wikipedia a derivative wokr includes (a significant portion of) the original work. In that view, Emacs plugins, are not derivative works. IIUC the FSF argues that using a library in your program makes your program a derivative work of that library. (It's why there's also an LGPL.) In that view, something could be said for the argument that plugins are derivative works, even though Emacs is strictly speaking not a library. If you say that Emacs is essentially a virtual machine, then plugins written by third parties are not derivative works, I think. I mean, Oracles JVM is GPL, but I doubt that means that every program running on it must also be GPL. OTOH most Emacs plugins aren't just programs that happen to run on the Emacs VM, they're extensions modifying or extending the functionality of Emacs itself. (There are a few packages that I would consider actual programs running on top of Emacs, such as Gnus, mu4e, magit, etc. To me, those are intuitively different from a package such as e.g., markdown-mode or hydra, but the line is difficult to draw. I'm myself not sure on what side of the line I'd put org-mode, for example.) Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it's not at all clear what the legal status of Emacs packages is, and I'm pretty sure that if someone were to publish a proprietary Emacs extension and the FSF would sue, it'd be far from an open and shut case... -- Joost Kremers joostkremers@fastmail.fm Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht EN:SiS(9)