gEDA-dev: About GPL/LGPL and gEDA's symbols/fonts/schematics

[Igor2]

<snip>

>	As of right now, the schematic files just reference the 
>symbols (unless you embed them and then the waters get a little murky).
>So no your schematics are not automatically under the GPL.  They are
>still your schematics so you can put them under whatever license you want.

If you distribute the schematic file it doesn't need to be under the
GPL. However, I'm not sure if the same is true when you _load_ it. The GPL
says you are not allowed to produce derived works using a GPL and a
non-GPL (-compatible) license. If you have a GPL schematic and a
non-compatible symbol file and you make gschem to link them together
runtime, the resulting whatever that exists in your computer's RAM while
you are working on the project is a derived work I guess. That's the same
(as I see) as linking shared libraries or DLLs with an executable, which
is not legal if your executable is GPL and your DLL is not compatible. 
 
Igor2