HTTP Server and Client
From GPLv3 Wiki
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.
The terms of GPLv3 could insinuate that Party A is violating Party B's license by doing this.
- 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.
Party A doesn't have permission to relicense Party C's work under GPLv3, so Party A cannot distribute the DVD due to the Liberty or Death clause.
However, 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.
An HTTP server and client that don't share any code and can operate independently would count as "separate and independent works" here, at least.
