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From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) : [ foldoc ]
General Public Virus
A pejorative name for some versions of the
GNU project copyleft or General Public License (GPL),
which requires that any tools or application programs
incorporating copylefted code must be source-distributed on
the same terms as GNU code. 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.
Copyright law limits the scope of the GPL to "programs
textually incorporating significant amounts of GNU code" so
GPL is only passed on if actual GNU source is transmitted.
This used to be the case with the Bison parser skeleton
until its licence was fixed.
http://org.gnu.de/manual/bison/html_chapter/bison_2.html#SEC2)" rel="nofollow">(http://org.gnu.de/manual/bison/html_chapter/bison_2.html#SEC2).
[{Jargon File]
(1999-07-14)
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) : [ jargon ]
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.