Hi, On Mon, 2004-10-04 at 20:22, Per Bothner wrote: > is it safe to depend on books and articles that may be the result of > unpermitted actions?
When I discussed this with Richard Stallman he said the main reasoning behind recommending a published book as primary reference when working on GNU Classpath is that if a book publisher can/has produced a book to explain the system, we can explain the system using source code (and publish this source code). The source code we publish is probably even a better/clearer description of the system than any book about the subject. Not a literal quote though. My interpretation of what he said. > Of course I would like a lawyer (and specifically Eben Moglen) to > evaluate this analysis. Perhaps I'm wrong in dismising the > specification as a trade secret, for example. > > > FSF Legal will always advise not to take any unnessecary risks that > > might endanger the (perceived) free software status of a GNU project. > > Right, but even if reading the specification is a risk, I suspect it > falls into the "necessary" category. What I want to warn about is using anything that is not publicly accessible. If you need to actively consent to some click-through license then don't use it as your primary reference when working on code for GNU Classpath before contacting me (or the mailinglist). I am happy to look for alternative means to get at information. And if there is a (really good) book published on the subject and you really need it for completing a part for GNU Classpath then let me know and I see what I can do. Also, I am happy to make sure specific cases get reviewed by FSF legal. But please make it a concrete case. "I am implementing <this> part for GNU Classpath and to make a real compatible implementation I need to access <this> information, which is only available if I accept the following <terms>. I looked here and there for alternative specs, but I am really stuck at this point." There is a lot of work already for FSF legal. And if Eben or another lawyer needs to review it then it might take a while before there is a real formal response. Cheers, Mark
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