Alexander Terekhov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > John Hasler wrote: > [...] >> You do not give up any rights by distributing under the GPL. > > You need to contact IBM's legal counsel and set them straight before > they further embarrass themselves, uncle Hasler. > > Wallace (to the Appellate Judges): > > ---- > IBM et al. state [IBM Brief at 15, ¶1] “The ownership interests > contributors to software licensed under the GPL might have in their > modifications are seriously limited, given that any distribution of > those modifications must be done under the terms of the GPL”. This > statement constitutes a mea culpa with respect to the extension of > “intellectual property rights beyond those conferred by Congress” > [see IBM Brief at 15, ¶2].
Uh, a "modification" is hardly a term used to describe something which contains nothing of the original and is not derived from it. As an example, suppose I have a GPLed application which contains an inefficient insertion sorting algorithm at some point. I take this application and replace the insertion sort with a merge sort I wrote myself. This is a modification of the application. It can either be carried out inline, or in a separate function. In either case, if I lift out the algorithm created by myself and strip it of any data structures specific to the GPLed application (which might already be the case if the sorting function was added as a separate function), what I get as a result contains nothing of the GPLed application. Nobody would call it a modification of it, and it can be distributed separately without any problem. However, the original application with the sorting routine replaced _is_ a modification and derived work from the original GPLed application. I can't distribute that under any terms but the GPL, even though I can distribute the lifted sorting stuff under my own terms. So I don't see how with the given phrasing IBM's counsel would need to change a word. And I don't see anybody embarrassing himself here except from you and Wallace. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
