Not quite -- the GPL makes exceptions for that in Section 1: "However, [the "Corresponding Source"] does not include the work's System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free programs which are used unmodified in [generating, installing, running, or modifying the work] but which are not part of the work."
Basically, system stuff is exempt.
But you're right to be confused. If bright, prominent developers like jacobian and jnoller can't definitively answer these questions, then there's a problem with the implementation of either the GPL or the US legal system. After all, if the developers themselves can't fully grok the GPL, then who is it for?
Basically, system stuff is exempt.
But you're right to be confused. If bright, prominent developers like jacobian and jnoller can't definitively answer these questions, then there's a problem with the implementation of either the GPL or the US legal system. After all, if the developers themselves can't fully grok the GPL, then who is it for?