From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 5 01:56:00 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 455CE16A4BF for ; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 01:56:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net (heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0323944011 for ; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 01:55:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from user-2ivfjg5.dialup.mindspring.com ([165.247.206.5] helo=mindspring.com) by heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19vCIX-0006pQ-00; Fri, 05 Sep 2003 01:50:30 -0700 Message-ID: <3F584DFC.DAE597D7@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 01:49:00 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Rahul Siddharthan References: <4.3.2.7.2.20030904135920.03aab5e0@localhost> <20030905033417.GA1374@online.fr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a4af32e7608f5da881c1fe0541a3c7dd8c93caf27dac41a8fd350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org cc: Mark Murray Subject: Re: Ugly Huge BSD Monster X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 08:56:00 -0000 Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > Brett Glass wrote: > > If you view GPLed code, and then write something similar, you are > > open to claims that your work is derivative of the GPLed code and > > therefore must likewise be GPLed. This is what I thought he was aiming at... > You are open to the same sort of claims if you view closed-source code > (under, say, an NDA, or in a book where the authors have not > relinquished copyright for the code). The answer to this is "don't look at code not under an acceptable commercial-use friendly public license". > However, with the GPL, the FSF or whoever owns the copyrights will be > satisfied if you remove the offending code fragments: in fact if they > are small innocuous-looking chunks nobody's likely to pursue you. So, for example, if SCO or IBM owned the copyright... you'd be safe, right? 8-) 8-). > That said, we live in a litigious world, and if some nasty person really > wants to sue you on flippant copyright or patent violation or other > grounds (like SCO), you must have deep pockets (like IBM). Of all > organisations in the world, be assured that the FSF is the least likely > to sue you for anything less than brazen cut-and-pasting of entire > programs, despite your personal vendetta against them. What about if the GPL'ed code came from SCO or IBM, granting that SCO is litigious, and IBM has deep pockets? -- Terry