[_wmd]

The interpretation around what "linking" means in the context of the GPL is a full-time job. At the least, the literal interpretation I was raised with has never been the official position of the FSF. For example, just because you link a library statically doesn't mean you're GPL-violating. You need to for example, swap complex data structures in some complex control flow to cross the line.

Even then there are still more exceptions for 'runtimes' and suchlike where while in a literal sense, the final assembled program when executing is linked against GPL source the result is not considered to be covered by the GPL.

None of this stuff is actually part of the license text -- it's built on precedence and common understanding. These things are a lawyer's job, we're just engineers