Re: README.woe32, GPL, and the Win32 binaries

[Bruno Haible]

Kenneth J. Davis wrote:
> So basically your view boils down to if the component is not shipped with
> the OS, then you must provide source or you are in violation of the GPL.
> Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Yes this is my point of view.

> Hence my personal view, the compiler is a major component of any OS
> (regardless of which compiler it is -- within reasonable restrictions), and
> as such it's runtime (a part of the compiler) is applicable to this one
> exception of source in the GPL.  Therefore it is ok to build using MSVC
> version 7 or later, and have a binary that relies on that compiler's
> runtime.

Richard Stallman's opinion agrees with yours. He says that the compiler
used to compile a program is part of the OS and therefore the GPL exception
applies to binaries linked to the runtime library of such a compiler.
Regardless whether the compiler costs $1000. Regardless whether the compiler
is the one used by the OS vendor or a different one. Regardless whether
the compiler runtime library is usually found on a user's system.

Note: I think this applies only to the C compiler. Not sure what RMS's
opinion is about higher-level languages (Pascal, Smalltalk, Java, C# etc.)

> Clearly distributing MSVCRT.DLL, MSVCR70.DLL,
> or probably any other Microsoft runtime, with a GPL'd application is going
> to fall under the 'unless that component accompanies the executable' part,
> and so is not possible without violating the GPL and probably Microsoft's
> license.

I agree.

I am therefore changing the gettext/libiconv README.woe32 to read like this:

  Note that binaries created with MSVC 7.0 should not be distributed: They
  depend on a closed-source library 'msvcr70.dll' which is not normally part
  of a Woe32 installation. You cannot distribute 'msvcr70.dll' with the
  binaries - this would be a violation of the GPL and of the Microsoft EULA.
  You can distribute the binaries without including 'msvcr70.dll', but this
  will cause problems for users that don't have this library on their system.
  Therefore it is not recommended. This problem does not occur with MSVC 6.0
  and earlier.

Bruno