On Mon, 2014-08-25 at 19:52 +0200, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:
> > Question:
> >
> > I use an XXX licenced "free" compiler to produce a target 'program'.
> > Under what circumstances does my target program become equally "free"?
> >
> >
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> Under no circumstances, just like writing a document using Word does not=
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> bind the result to any Microsoft license (if this were possible they=20
> would surely have done it!).

Not entirely true.  There is nothing that prevents the author of a
proprietary compiler from preventing you from publishing the produced
code.  In most cases, the license does clearly state that you have all
rights to the produced code, but that does not have to be the case.

In almost all cases of proprietary compilers, libraries are proprietary
to some degree, and rarely can your code run without the library
routines.  This actually varies considerably from vendor to vendor.

At one time, the Word binaries were restricted due to copyrights on the
fonts.  I suspect that has been resolved by now, in any case, it was
pretty much unenforceable. But I stick to LibreOffice so I haven't
studied the horrid Microsoft licenses in years.

If you use an open source compiler under the GPL, then there is no
question that you can do what you want with the result, and ditto for
those libraries licensed under GPL.  Some of the other 'open source'
licenses are not quite so flexible.  But in general, the philosophy of
the open source community is to let people be free in what they do with
their work product.  The only place you tend to see odd stuff appearing
is when the product is from some large company, for example Oracle, that
wants to open source something but doesn't have an open source culture.

I know of no case where the license requires you to open source your
product, however.  That doesn't mean it can't be done, I've just never
seen it.  I could imagine it happening -- some open source proponents
are truly rabid about it.

So in any case, read the license!

--McD


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