Re: Win CE port

[Dalibor Topic]

Philippe Laporte wrote:
> Hi,
>     It is our understanding that a GPL VM can't be freely redistributed 
> in a commercial product.

You can use and redistribute a GPLd VM, just like how you can use or 
redistribute GNU/Linux in products. You need to comply with the 
provisions of the GPL for the code you license from third parties under 
the GPL, of course, be it a VM or the Linux kernel, but that part is the 
same for any code under any license.

If you have questions and doubts regarding the precise legal effects of 
the GPL in your situation, a wise choice is to ask a lawyer familar with 
the GPL, like FSF's GPL-compliance lab, or, if you are interested in the 
opinion of the people whose code you intend to use, you should ask the 
affected projects, who may be familar with your use case.

That being said, if using a LGPLd VM works well for you, by all means 
just use that.

Since I've talked with you recently on the Kaffe lists, I assume the 
GPLd VM in this case is Kaffe, so I'll add that distributing a build of 
Kaffe for Windows CE is fine, as long as you follow GPL's provisions 
regarding the redistribution (i.e. all users receiving the executables 
from you can get the source code for that particular Kaffe build with 
all your patches and extensions to it).

As Per said, there are cases in embedded software development when 
external factors make it very hard to follow GPL's provisions, so if 
you, for example, wanted to inject a GPLd VM directly into the 
proprietary WinCE kernel, you'd have to clear that with Microsoft first.

I'd additionally suggest making sure that your users understand that the 
license, which covers your non-GPLd product does not cover the GPLd VM, 
and vice versa  ... so users know they receive two separate products, at 
least one of which they can use, study, modify and redistribute freely 
themselves, namely the GPLd VM, in that case.

cheers,
dalibor topic