Re: GPL and "free" software

[Barry Margolin <barmar@bbnplanet.com>]

In article <372F36AB.55833EA6@doc.ic.ac.uk>,
Ed Avis  <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk> wrote:
>Barry Margolin wrote:
>
>>>I meant that something like:
>>>
>>>#define BUFFER_SIZE 1000
>>>#define MAX_THINGIES 6
>>>
>>>probably isn't copyrightable, especially once you strip away the names
>>>and are just left with the pair of integers '1000, 6'.
>
>>It certainly is copyrightable.  The choice of names is a significant part
>>of programming.  A header file that says:
>>
>>#define ASDFASDF 1000
>>#define LKJLKJLK 6
>>
>>is quite different from the above file.
>
>My point was, the only part of the header file which gets included in
>the final executable (or, indeed, in the .S file) is the two numbers
>1000 and 6.  So my header file and yours would give identical object
>code.  I don't see how the number six can be copyrighted, except
>perhaps in relation to the Children's Television Workshop.

Suppose you have a program that contains:

#include <somefile.h>
...
printf ("%d, %d\n", BUFFER_SIZE, MAX_THINGIES);

If you compile this file, you'll get a different object file depending on
whether somefile.h contains:

#define BUFFER_SIZE 1000
#define MAX_THINGIES 6

or

#define BUFFER_SIZE 6
#define MAX_THINGIES 1000

Thus, the object file is derived from the header file.

>I thought that very small snippets of code were not copyrighted.

They are, but in some cases copying small snippets out of a larger work
might be fair use, and hence not infringing.  There are a number of
criteria that must be satisfied for a copy to be fair use, and size in
proportion to the entire work is just one of them.

Perhaps a court might decide that the way that header files are typically
used constitutes fair use.  AFAIK, it's never been tested.

Years ago I worked for a company that produced an operating system and
compilers.  It was quite common for programmers at the time to produce
compiler listings that included all the header files inserted.  IIRC, we
took the copyright notices *out* of our header files so that these listing
files wouldn't appear to be copyrighted by the vendor.  Our PL/I compiler
didn't support macros, so the only stuff in the header files were function
prototypes and structure declarations, and we weren't concerned about them
being copied.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
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