General Public Virus: n. Pejorative name for some versions of
the GNU project copyleft or General Public License (GPL), which
requires that any tools or apps incorporating copylefted code must
be source-distributed on the same anti-proprietary terms as GNU
stuff. Thus it is alleged that the copyleft `infects' software
generated with GNU tools, which may in turn infect other software
that reuses any of its code. The Free Software Foundation's
official position as of January 1991 is that copyright law limits
the scope of the GPL to "programs textually incorporating
significant amounts of GNU code", and that the `infection' is not
passed on to third parties unless actual GNU source is transmitted.
Nevertheless, widespread suspicion that the copyleft language is
`boobytrapped' has caused many developers to avoid using GNU tools
and the GPL. Changes in the language of the version 2.0 GPL did not
eliminate this problem.
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