Shed Skin Python-to-C++ Compiler 0.0.21, Help needed

[Michael Torrie]

On Sun, 2007-04-01 at 02:49 +0000, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:
> 	Take that up with ACT... GNAT 3.15p was explicitly unencumbered, but
> the current version of GNAT, in the GPL (no-service contract) form has
> gone the other direction, claiming that executables must be released
> GPL.

The no-service contract version of the GPL is not the same as the
standard GPLv2.  Ordinarily the GPLv2 does not apply to the output of
the program unless the license specifies that it does (a modification or
addendum).  Thus the output of a program is not part of the GPL usually,
unless specified  MySQL's take on the GPLv2 without an addendum is
mistaken, in my opinion.  However, copyright law probably still applies
to the programs output regardless of license, but in what way I don't
think the courts have ever specified, given that the output depends
largely on the input.  GCC, Bison, and Flex, all explicitly state that
the output of the program is not under any license, and is your own
property.  Perhaps the author of Shed Skin could make a note in the
license file to clarify the state of the output of his program.

There should be no problem with this Shed Skin program being under the
GPL and using it with python scripts that are not under the GPL.  But if
you have any concern with a copyright license at all, you should consult
your lawyer.  Too many companies see GPL'd programs as a free ride, not
willing to accept that they need a copyright license to use the code
just as they would with any code from any source.  It's sad to see
because free software gets an unfair bad rap because of the greed of
others.  On the other hand, others take an overly paranoid view of the
GPL and pretend it is viral and somehow magically infects your code with
the GPL license, which is false--if you use GPL'd code in your non GPL'd
application then you are in a copyright violation situation and your
only options are to either GPL your code or remove the offending GPL'd
source from your code and write your own dang code, thank you very much.