Hello,
By reading the GPL exception at http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html, I came across the following term: "As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules". Does it mean that classpath can be linked against other libraries which do not call classpath, or that programs can be linked against the classpath (given that the apllication is "a module which is not derived from or based on this library"). In the later case, the application is certainly based on the API, but not on the implementation indeed.
My concern is the following one: given a non-GPL application compiled against a static API whose implementation is not provided during the compilation process, and an implementation of the library released under the classical GPL. I suppose that I can compile the application since the GPL code is not even present on the computer. The question of course is whether the API is licensable, and if it is legal to execute the compiled application by providing him a GPL implementation. This question is interesting in the case of Java applications. Indeed, given a compiled java application, can I run it given a GPL class library? If yes, why couldn't I run an application using Trolltech's Qt library if I have written all headers myself given the documentation? If the compilation is legal, then is a package containing both the application and the library implementation an "aggregate" work as defined in the GPLv3?
Finally, why can a non-GPL bash script call several GPL applications? Technically speaking, the script call functions of a GPL application. The function to call is identified by the argument name, and the parameters provided by the subsequent parameters.
Any suggestion is welcome :)
King Regard,
Laurent Debacker.
