[Fsf-india] DotGNU meet-a-thon -- issue of GPL

[Gopal.V]

Hi Everybody,
    The DotGNU project is conducting a *mega* meet . I think one 
of the subjects in discussion may be of interest to freesoftware
people.

    The future of GPL in the world of webservices is an important
concern DotGNU has. Can connecting to a SOAP interface be considered
as "linking" ?. Is invoking a remote XMLRPC call covered by GPL ?.
The problems of GPL'd software being made into webcomponents and
used by Proprietary Software thus escaping the GPL is frightening.
This a gray region of the term "linking" as said in the GPL.

    An excellent example of this issue is present in the GCC 
introspector which allows a programmer to obtain the AST of
GCC (ie syntax tree) via a SOAP interface or store it into a 
SQL database. This amazingly radical idea is ideal for prototyping
better and new optimisation routines for GCC , but will it allow
a closed source company to use GCC's RTL optimisations for their 
compiler and still escape GPL. See http://introspector.sf.net/. 

    So is a GPL v3 required to combat this problem or are there 
other solution to this problem. 

    Come and talk about this and more at irc.openprojects.net#dotgnu
in between 10 Am GMT saturday and 10 Pm GMT sunday. (the whole 
agenda on linux.com/newsforge article).

Gopal.V

PS: also I think this is an excellent oppurtunity to prove that 
    FSF India is a hotbed of activity.
-- 
 The difference between insanity and genius is only measured by success
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