Q: What legal issues come up if I use GPL-incompatible libraries with GPL software?
If the libraries that you link with fall within the following exception in the GPL:
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
then you don't have to do anything special to use them; the requirement to distribute source code for the whole program does not include those libraries, even if you distribute a linked executable containing them. Thus, if the libraries you need come with major parts of a proprietary operating system, the GPL says people can link your program with them without any conditions.
[^] # Re: hein?
Posté par Croconux . En réponse à la dépêche Comparatif de cartes graphiques récentes sous Linux. Évalué à 5.
Q: What legal issues come up if I use GPL-incompatible libraries with GPL software?
If the libraries that you link with fall within the following exception in the GPL:
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
then you don't have to do anything special to use them; the requirement to distribute source code for the whole program does not include those libraries, even if you distribute a linked executable containing them. Thus, if the libraries you need come with major parts of a proprietary operating system, the GPL says people can link your program with them without any conditions.