[LLVMdev] GPL licensing issues or can GCC be used with llvm for a commercial application?

[Daniel Berlin]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 5:54 AM, Jonathan S. Shapiro <shap at eros-os.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-05-13 at 23:36 -0700, Chris Lattner wrote:
>
> > I don't want to discourage you, but you are basically asking for
>  > interpretation of legal documents...
>
> > If you really really need to know the answer to questions like these,
>  > the best bet is to hire legal council.
>
>  Chris is right. I would add that it sounds like you are already getting
>  nonsense responses.
>
>  However, when you look for a lawyer, look for one who has dealt with GPL
>  before. It is a very different type of license than most, and the
>  majority of IP lawyers today remain unfamiliar with it. Further, a
>  lawyer's training is to maximize the interests of their clients, not the
>  interests of a community. This can lead to misunderstandings.

Just to chime in here as an IP lawyer:
It's not clear what question you are quite asking , but Chris is
right, you really should talk to an IP lawyer about this.

I will tell you you will get different answers depending on which
lawyers you ask.
There are plenty of proprietary applications that ship alongside GPL code.
It has been done and it will continue to be done, much to the FSF's chagrin.
If you need a recommendation for a lawyer to talk to, I can provide one.

--Dan