From a5f9f756d480c7ffb2265ee4b65f8f76cd588787 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Bradley M. Kuhn" Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 21:17:07 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Wordsmith paragraph. --- compliance-guide.tex | 18 +++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/compliance-guide.tex b/compliance-guide.tex index 14d783a..7a35558 100644 --- a/compliance-guide.tex +++ b/compliance-guide.tex @@ -138,25 +138,29 @@ more complex obligations under the license.\footnote{While, there has been much Licenses}'s Section on derivative works}{\S~\ref{derivative-works} of this tutorial}.} -However, in our experience with GPL enforcement, few redistributors' +However, experienced GPL enforcers find that few redistributors' compliance challenges relate directly to the copyleft provisions; this is -doubly true for most embedders. Instead, the distributions of GPL'd -systems that we encounter typically consist of a full operating system +particularly true for most embedders. Instead, the distributions of GPL'd +systems most often encountered typically consist of a full operating system including components under the GPL (e.g., Linux, BusyBox) and components under the LGPL (e.g., the GNU C Library). Sometimes, these programs have been patched or slightly improved by direct modification of their sources, resulting unequivocally in a derivative work. Alongside these programs, companies often distribute fully independent, proprietary programs, developed from scratch, which are designed to run on the Free Software operating -system but do not combine with, link to, modify, or otherwise derive from +system but do not combine with, link to, modify, derive from, or otherwise +create a combined work with the GPL'd components.\footnote{However, these programs do often combine with LGPL'd libraries. This is discussed in detail in \S~\ref{lgpl}.} In the latter case, where the work is unquestionably a separate work of -creative expression, no derivative work has been created. The tiny +creative expression, no copyleft provisions are invoked. + +Admittedly, a tiny minority of situations which lie outside these two categories, and thus -involve close questions about derivative works, require a highly +do involve close questions about derivative and combined works. Those +situations admittedly do require a highly fact-dependent analysis and cannot be addressed in a general-purpose -document. +document, anyway. Most companies accused of violations, however, lack a basic understanding of how to comply even in the straightforward scenario. This document