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New RMS is far crazier than that.
I seem to recall original interpretation of the GPL, as applied to GCC, was that everything produced using GCC was GPL.
New He was probably right
The GPL says:

The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

It is very easy for the output of a compiler to be a work based on the compiler under copyright law. For a trivial example, it could just insert a copyrighted poem into the final work. For a more realistic example, suppose that it inserted a section of code that tested the type of CPU and dynamically turned on/off specific optimizations or workarounds.

The result is that there are specific kinds of optimizations that the GCC maintainers will not even consider because they would make the output of GCC a derivative work of GCC and trigger the GPL.

Personally I wish that they added them anyways and had a compiler switch that you could use to turn them on. On my Debian system, I don't mind if all of the GPLed utilities are compiled in a way that makes them faster but derivative works of GCC.

Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
New (Un)intended consequences
Suppose the FSF gets a case into court arguing that serving up a website constitutes public performance, so that they can enforce the terms of the GPL against the site host. Suppose a judge accepts the argument and the FSF prevails.

Presto, Microsoft owns all websites hosted on IIS. Now whose license do you like better? And what do you think of UCITA?
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Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link|http://DocHope.com|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats].
[link|http://DocHope.com|http://DocHope.com]
     Hints about the GPL v3 - (ben_tilly) - (15)
         Wouldn't that also apply to non-OSS licenses? - (drewk) - (4)
             Yes - (ben_tilly) - (3)
                 Sounds like the real choice in licensing is simplicity - (drewk) - (2)
                     BSD is simpler - (ben_tilly) - (1)
                         Hate to say this, but ... - (drewk)
         That would conflict with Freedom 0. - (ubernostrum) - (9)
             Why wouldn't he? - (ben_tilly) - (8)
                 I can think of one reason - (jake123) - (7)
                     That argument is not new - (ben_tilly)
                     RMS is far crazier than that. - (broomberg) - (2)
                         He was probably right - (ben_tilly) - (1)
                             (Un)intended consequences - (drewk)
                     That could bring up an interesting possibility. - (static) - (2)
                         That entirely depends on what your website does - (ben_tilly) - (1)
                             I hadn't thought of that. -NT - (static)

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