Possible GPL violation in Avantis Content Cache servers

[Markus Mikkolainen]

> > -- you say "/As wget is used as the mirroring and pre-caching system, it
> > is an integral part of the appliance. It cannot be used separately from
> > the rest of the product (as there is no command line interface)wget is
> > an integral part of the appliance" / If this is so,  this would seem to
> > oblige Avantis to distribute all the package (in so far as any part
> > cannot be considered a "separate independent work") under the GPL. The
> > same may apply for Setacl - though I don't know the system architecture.
> That's one possible interpretation, certainly, although I understood
> that the GPL only required linked software to be released under the GPL.
>  (Although I also understand that this is also an area of much debate
> wrt the GPL.)

As far as i have understood GPL only stands if stuff is linked , or if the
system depends on the specific software. In this case it probably doesnt
depend on wget , since you could replace it (probably) with curl (for example)
and a suitable shell script to replicate wget commandline interface. 

ditto for setacl...otherwise if the opposite were true most of the systems
based on GPL stuff would be illegal... also that kind of interpretation 
would be quite counterproductive. 

An example of "depending" on a bit of software is a case where a company 
will only contribute some extensions to a GPL software which enable 
the software to connect to their "extension" without which the GPL
software will not work at all (for example due to a snazzy public-key
encryption DRM licensing scheme).. in this case they are breaking the
GPL since the "GPL" software depends on a proprietary closed non-GPL
system and has no meaning without it.. they are trying to circumvent 
the GPL. 

in the avantis case they are just shelling (?) out to a wget binary which
could easily be replaced by any version of wget or any commandline-compatible
bit of software. 

-- 
Markus "itmo" Mikkolainen - a jack of all trades, master of some.
Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!
...All your future lies beneath your hat.