Re: Is the GPL all encompassing?

[Hyman Rosen]

amicus_curious wrote:
> Can you conceive of any instance of that?

I dunno. Maybe some code generation stuff from the
inside of GCC to implement some JIT compilation?
Maybe some of the GIMP's image manipulation code?
Maybe some video codecs?

> Perhaps, but there is never likely to be any need for that.

Yet, as the various GPL enforcement actions demonstrate,
many companies do use and distribute GPLed software. So
they think there's a need even if you don't. I suppose
you think there's a difference between distributing entire
programs unchanged and incorporating a portion into a new
work, but I would claim that if an entire work is useful
then parts of it could be useful as well.