[ale] Compiling from source

[The Don Lachlan]

On 06/17/2011 09:25 PM, David Tomaschik wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 3:50 PM, James Sumners<james.sumners at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> But that does not mean
>> they have to make the code they wrote independently of it available.
>> So it's possible that the code is completely unable to be compiled,
>> but you have it anyway.
>
> Actually, GPL pretty much does require you be able to rebuild it.
<snip>
> However, it does not include the work's System Libraries, or

Firstly, that's GPL v3.0, which is likely newer than the code in 
question. However,

``The "System Libraries" of an executable work include anything, other
than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of
packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major
Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that
Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an
implementation is available to the public in source code form.  A
"Major Component", in this context, means a major essential component
(kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system
(if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to
produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it.``
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

As the cryptography is specific to the hardware (even if not limited to 
that hardware), the cryptography is legitimately a "System Library".

Since the code was likely licensed under GPL v2.0, this section applies:

``However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not 
include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or 
binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of 
the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component 
itself accompanies the executable.``
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Also reference:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FSWithNFLibs

The defense rests, your Honor.

-L (This is why I don't buy proprietary stuff in the first place...)