From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,faf964ea4531e6af X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1025b4,43ae7f61992b3213 X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public From: "Joshua E. Rodd" Subject: Re: GPL and "free" software Date: 1999/04/28 Message-ID: <3727B37D.A4A5192E@noah.dhs.org>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 472102731 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <7fibd5$jc7$1@news2.tor.accglobal.net> <1rlV2.97$jw4.11389@burlma1-snr2> <7g5cb2$bjn$1@netnews.upenn.edu> <37264DE6.7AA43E60@noah.dhs.org> <7g5qgg$n7t@www.inetnow.net> <372753FF.11F381CF@noah.dhs.org> <7g7ul9$tib$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@neo.rr.com X-Trace: dustdevil.neo.rr.com 925348733 24.93.213.213 (Wed, 28 Apr 1999 21:18:53 EDT) Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online -- Northeast Ohio MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 21:18:53 EDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,gnu.misc.discuss Date: 1999-04-28T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > I specifically discussed this issue with Richard Stallman > recently. His position is that a patch file, even one > without context, is so dependent on the original as to > be equivalent to a derived work, and he is confident that > a court would agree with this interpretation. This is very true. > No one can be that definite (unless you are a judge :-). > I would certainly agree with Richard Stallman on this > point, but of course it would require a court decision > to get a definitive view. Yes. If the patch were being used in a way the clearly violated the spirit of the GPL, then the court probably would rule that the licence were violated. Come to think of it, any patch probably *is* a derived work as it takes input from the GPL'd code.