On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Christopher Mahan wrote:

> Rich, I am assuming you're a smart guy.

Some might say you assume too much--but not I.  :-)

> What am I supposed to do with 8 files out of 13 that it takes to
> build a program and run it? 
> 
> I take rich.c and add chris.c, and I also add commonheader.h, but I
> don't make commonheader.h CDDL, but ChrisLicense (which in your case
> would require large monthly payments to me) and chris.c is a simple
> wrapper for commonheader.h. This means you could not use chris.c
> (unless you wanted to make large monthly paymnts to me) even though
> chris.c was CDDL. 

Eh?  That sounds kinda convoluted to me.  The example I was giving
assumed that rich.c was a standalone set of routines--a library if
you will--that has no dependancy on anything else (apart from its
own header file, perhaps).  I was further postulating that it was
you who wanted to use rich.c, not vice-versa.

However, in the secnario you describe, I'd obviously not be able to
use chris.c (unless I could reverse engineer commonheader.h), unless
I wanted to fork out large sums of cash.  Which I don't.  :-)

> To me, this is why file-base permissions does not work, and the GPL
> specifically says the entire project must be GPL. 
> 
> I could use your file rich.c and chris.c (I own the copyright to 
> commonheader.h) in an app called "Chris and Rich App 1.0", but you
> could not.

True; but doing so goes against the spirit of open software.  But
again I think this example is a little contrived.  I write rich.c
to scratch some itch I have, and release it under the CDDL.  You're
writing an app and decide that some of the stuff in rich.c would be
useful to you.  Your source, chris.c, can use rich.c however it likes,
regardless of chris.c's license (provided that chris.c's licesne
doesn't prohibit such a combination).  The only gotcha is that if you
modify rich.c you have to make the source to those changes avaialable.

Granted, because of commonheader.h's onerous license I can't use
chris.c for my stuff.  But that's not because of the CDDL.

> You may think I'm all FUD, and I'm just being trollish for my
> personal perverse pleasure. 

Nope.

> they can get their hands on. You know why? It's too freaking
> complicated.
> 
> Things have to get simpler before they'll get better.

Agreed; Shakespear had it right: first, shoot all the lawyers.  :-)

-- 
Rich Teer, SCSA, SCNA, SCSECA, OpenSolaris CAB member

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-group.com/rich
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