[plug] Java and the GPL

[Christian]

On Sun, Jun 18, 2000 at 03:53:13PM +0000, Oliver White wrote:
> Hey folks. I've been reading the article on freshmeat about KDE and the
> QPL. I was thinking... is it legal to distribute Java applications under
> the GPL, since they will undoubtably link to the proprietary APIs of
> sun's JDK. I understand there's some leeway given to the standard
> libraries like libc, but the JDK is almost world - kitchen sink.
> Thoughts, comments, flames?

My understanding is that your GPL'd code can be dynamically linked with
proprietary libraries that came with the system, thus allowing you to
distribute GPL'd software compiled for Solaris (pesky SMS again!).  I
guess with Java you would have to distribute your code under the GPL but
with the additional clause that it could be dynamically linked against
standard/open Java[1] libraries.  Your other option might be to LGPL it.

Regards,

Christian.

[1]  And, yes, I know this is something of an oxymoron.