[plug] Java and the GPL

[Oliver White]

Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:

> [Oliver White]
> > 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.
>
> You do not have to use SUN's JDK.  Kaffe (GPL) and Japhar (LGPL) are
> GPL-compatible alternatives.  Kaffe more then Japhar at the moment,
> but I'm sure this will change.  In addition you can use the Java
> frontend to GCC and link with gcj to get a native binary if you want.

Aha, but of course these *arn't* Java(TM). My question stands.

--
Oliver White