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HTTP Server and Client

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Revision as of 20:38, 12 March 2006; view current revision
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Party A produces AcmeOS distributions(AcmeOS is a hypothetical free operating system, made up of software under various free software licenses, some of which are GPLv3 compatible and some of which are not). They source a GPLv3d HTTP server from Party B, and make some small modifications. They source a HTTP client from Party C under a different, GPLv3 incompatible free software license.

Both the HTTP client and the HTTP server are put on the distribution DVD. The HTTP client is configured, by default, to load a page with documentation about the system from the HTTP server.

In my opinion, the terms of GPLv3 should be such that Party A should not be violating Party B's license by doing this. However, this may not be the case with the current text...

But when you distribute the same sections for use in combination with covered works, no matter in what form such combination occurs, the whole of the combination must be licensed under this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to every part of the whole.

Unfortunately, Party A doesn't have permission to license Party C's work under GPLv3, so Party A cannot distribute the DVD due to the Liberty or Death clause.

I think this operating system distribution would qualify as an aggregate. Later in section 5:
A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. Mere inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate.
I think an HTTP server and client that don't share any code with each other would count as "separate and independent works" here, at least. --brett 15:38, 12 March 2006 (EST)