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These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
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This would seem to suggest that RunUO scripts are considered derived under terms of the GPL itself, if and only if the scripts are distributed with RunUO by the scripter. There are certainly people in the community who have said this sort of thing before, FYI. I am uncertain of Stallman's exact position on it, no less what the courts have had to say about it. What constitutes a derived work under the law and courts has always been a bit murky.
What I do have to wonder is this: if the RunUO team believes that the referencing something as trivial a class name and a few method names generates a derived work, how can they not believe that the wholesale incorporation of hundreds of megabytes of OSI original content into their server, on a regular basis, and as a matter of reduction to practice true for virtually every known RunUO instance in existence, does not likewise make their own source code a derivative work of EA's intellectual property?
This is a bit of a conundrum. I would argue that because RunUO is distributed without OSI's intellectual property, the distinctly separate act of distribution exempts it from derivation. But note, the same rule would apply to scripts, regardless of Ryan's opinion about it. The GPL is protecting his server, not the work of the various scripters.
Hence my suggestion to Ryan, to force submissions on the site to be GPL'd. No GPL, no submission allowed.
I'm personally okay with that.
But I am also of the opinion that the legal basis of Ryan's opinion isn't as sound as he would like to think.
C//