in reply to Using GPL'd Perl Modules in Commercial Software

Also from the Faqs...
In an object-oriented language such as Java, if I use a class that is GPL'ed without modifying, and subclass it, in what way does the GPL affect the larger program?

Subclassing is creating a derivative work. Therefore, the terms of the GPL affect the whole program where you create a subclass of a GPL'ed class.

If I interpret this correctly, this means you can't use a GPL'd module in a non-GPL'd program, does it not?

  • Comment on Re: Using GPL'd Perl Modules in Commercial Software

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Re: Re: Using GPL'd Perl Modules in Commercial Software
by maverick (Curate) on Feb 18, 2002 at 00:44 UTC
    That would seem to depend on the definition of 'use'. The way I took it is that 
    use Foo;
my $foo = Foo->new();

    [download]
    is ok since I'm just using the Foo object as is. Where something like 
    package Foo::Bar;
use base("Foo");

sub some_method_in_foo_that_i_override {
    my $self = shift;
    # stuff
}

1;

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    would be caught by this clause. Foo::Bar is based upon the code in Foo...not just making use of the Foo object as it was distributed. See the subtle difference?

    /\/\averick
    perl -l -e "eval pack('h*','072796e6470272f2c5f2c5166756279636b672');"

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[d/l]
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      Yes, I believe this subtelty is one reason why the LGPL exists. However the wording (shared library) makes me think that it is truly the more appropriate license (vs. GPL).

      --
      perl -pe "s/\b;([st])/'\1/mg"

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