Actually, FPC before version 2.2.2 did indeed contain - unintentional - copyright violations.
But this was solved in co-operation with Borland/inprise and all sources were examined and where necessary clean-room re-developed.
ATM new code that affects the RTL is always checked. Although FPC
can compile the complete Delphi 7 RTL (except system unit which depends on compiler magic) there is a huge effort to NOT use Delphi code, just the interface, which is fine.
btw: if you have a Delphi 7 license that includes the sourcecode (professional+) there is no issue as long as you do not distribute with sourcecode because the
compiler is never mentioned in the Delphi 7 license. You can use any compiler...
Note that if you compile the Delphi 7 RTL with FPC, you will find that there are a few (5) bugs in the Delphi code, mostly missing
; and a handle issue. When fixed, everything works....and I reported those bugs to Borland/Inprise, btw..
The FPC parser seems to be better in parsing Delphi code
Also note that since Kylix, you can compile the Delphi 7 RTL with a GPL define....which means that
the FPC entry in the article mentioned is not totally correct, if not completely wrong...
But it
requires the GPL define. See the D7 (or Kylix) sources. Of course GPL is restrictive in other ways.
I mention Delphi 7 because that is the version I tested and used this (in KOL), so there may be other versions that can be used like this.
And the subject should read "gold digging lawyer"