From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 1 16:40:44 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F088C4E for ; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 16:40:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@sohara.org) Received: from uk1rly2283.eechost.net (relay01a.mail.uk1.eechost.net [217.69.40.75]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9BA21EF for ; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 16:40:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [31.186.37.179] (helo=smtp.marelmo.com) by uk1rly2283.eechost.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1UMhme-0001f1-Dz for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:40:36 +0100 Received: from [192.168.63.1] (helo=steve.marelmo.com) by smtp.marelmo.com with smtp (Exim 4.80.1 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1UMhmc-0002cH-Fy for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:40:34 +0000 Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 17:40:33 +0100 From: Steve O'Hara-Smith To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: use of the kernel and licensing Message-Id: <20130401174033.9952b528818668fa12b46e39@sohara.org> In-Reply-To: <51599907.3010802@a1poweruser.com> References: <20130331001209.GA69583@neutralgood.org> <51583C91.5060000@a1poweruser.com> <20130331163143.aabedff2.freebsd@edvax.de> <20130331170902.bbcd8179.freebsd@edvax.de> <51599907.3010802@a1poweruser.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.3.0 (GTK+ 2.24.17; amd64-portbld-freebsd9.1) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Auth-Info: 15567@permanet.ie (plain) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:40:44 -0000 On Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:26:15 -0400 Joe wrote: > snip.... > > How do you explain all the forks of UNIX each claiming their own > copyright. Look very carefully at the copyrights involved, you will see copyright attributions retained very carefully (see for example the file /usr/src/COPYRIGHT in FreeBSD). > They all provide the same concept, use the same names for > their commands, use the same programming language, have a filesystem as > their base. These features are defined in open standards (POSIX and SUS) for anyone who cares to implement them. > Just where is the line drawn between a fork and a rewrite? That's simple in essence, if it's written by taking a copy of the code and modifying it then it's a fork (until and unless you can prove that not one single line of the original code remains), if it's written from scratch with no reference to the original code then it's a rewrite. I suppose there are edge cases where a rewrite may include a portion taken from the original (assuming compatible licensing), or where a fork has been so heavily modified that little of the original remains. -- Steve O'Hara-Smith