But most apps wine will run *cannot* use a GPLed component. GPL expressly forbids being linked to a nonGPLed component.
*GPL does not
only cover the source, but rather the USE of the components
as well.
Read the license. It's quite an eye opener.
I'd argue (though IANAL) that a nonGPLed win32 executable running under wine is not being "linked" to any GPL component - wine itself may be linking to its own GPL components at run-time depending on what's going on with the win32 executable. But in terms of true linkage, I'd have viewed the win32 executable as more like a document that causes the host application (wine) to load appropriate sub-components with which to process the document. MS Word (to use an example) might have to dynamically link in a special MS Word component to process specifics in my document, it doesn't mean my document is "linked" with the MS Word component does it?
Ah, you are beginning to see the problem. :-)
This is the spot on one of the main problem with the GPL.
Proponents of the GPL are trying to use the doctrine of derived work as a means to achieve their goal without realizing (or rather ignoring) that if the doctrine of derived work supported want they wanted it would also, as a logical consequence, support to the absurdity you meantioned above.
This is why I firmly oppose the doctrine of derived work and instead hope that the courts will embrace the much more senisible doctrine of combined work that I have been talking about earlier.
Of course a strict doctrine of combined work would make the GPL and for that matter the LGPL largely meaningless, since you could distribute the LPGL work, the proprietory patch and a combining script seperately and let the user do the combining as thus no combined work is distributed and thus no violation of copyright law.
Note that a doctrine of combined work doesn't effect normal commercial software at all since the end user is legally required to pay for the software if he uses it, regardless of whether the user used some patch offered under whatever license. It ONLY effects viral licenses.
Of course, we could all ask RMS his opinion but we all know he'll interpret it (once again) to mean whatever is required to spread his GPL tenderhooks as far as possible. Living in Wellington, NZ I'm having to fight back hard the temptation to make a "Sauron" joke here ... :-)
I don't believe RMS is evil, quite the opposite, just that: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
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Patrik Stridvall