Re: GPL traitor !

[Hyman Rosen]

Rjack wrote:
> By statutory definition, a compilation does *not* modify a preexisting
> work, hence sec. 2 never applies to compilations. So... what section
> of the GPL applies to compilations consisting of the preexisting
> "separately copyrighted" elements?

If there were no such section, then it would be infringement to
conveystatically linked programs containing GPLed elements, since
the default permission is none.

But the GPL gives such permission:
    <http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html>
    To “modify” a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the
    work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the
    making of an exact copy. The resulting work is called a “modified
    version” of the earlier work or a work “based on” the earlier work.
    ...
    You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications
    to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under
    the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these
    conditions:
    ...
    * c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this
    License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy.

A statically linked program contains material which has been copied
from the libraries it links with, and thus it may be conveyed as a
whole under the GPL.