Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:01:21 -0700
From:      Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com>, hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org, Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>, Chris Mason <mason@suse.com>, Josh MacDonald <jmacd@CS.Berkeley.EDU>, Parity Error <bootup@mail.ru>, freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG, reiserfs-dev@namesys.com
Subject:   Re: [reiserfs-dev]i Re: metadata update durability ordering/softupdates
Message-ID:  <15519.22497.316581.402630@caddis.yogotech.com>
In-Reply-To: <3C9F1329.E4BFC6D4@mindspring.com>
References:  <20020318174641.A1153@hpdi.ath.cx> <3C9676B4.49A76589@mindspring.com> <3C9E1DA4.1090703@namesys.com> <3C9E6E28.9D0B8778@mindspring.com> <3C9F0500.4050206@namesys.com> <3C9F0730.418A94BE@mindspring.com> <3C9F1638.4020707@namesys.com> <3C9F1329.E4BFC6D4@mindspring.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> There was actually a lawsuit brought by the FSF over a case of
> a software product for cryuptography whic used an interface
> to an LGPL'ed library which was unique.

Actually, it wasn't a lawsuit, it was the threat of a lawsuit.

> The case failed to go to trial, when the software vendor wrote a
> plug-in replacement for the LGPL'ed library to show that the code was
> not itself derivative of the library because of the unique interface.

It wasn't a vendor, it was an individual.  And, the code in question was
the bignum library, so the individual took 2 days to write a *REALLY*
*REALLY* *REALLY* slow version of the library that was functionally
equivalent to the GNU version, and the threat was dropped.

> Actually, this would have been a hard case to win, since the
> interface copyright failure by Apple, Microsoft, and the
> earlier Ashton Tate vs. Clipper, Inc. case over the dBase III
> language definition, in which it was held that a computer
> language could not be copyright (this is als an argument
> against case (3) above, which is an equivalent data interface).

RMS was (to put it mildly) unhappy, but did not pursue it after the
alternative library was made available.  To this point, the GNU license
has never actually been tested in court, and I don't believe the above
case would have been a good one to try, for the reasons above, plus
others to esoteric to mention.



Nate

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?15519.22497.316581.402630>