On 22/02/07, Michael Silk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Now, clearly, their program itself is not a work derived from the GPLed
> one.
Yes, it is. Without the adjustments to the GPLed program theirs
wouldn't work, and they base their program around those said
adjustments so it clearly relies on the adjusted functionality.
I disagree. What they have done (in effect) is define an extension to
the POP3 protocol and modified an existing POP3 server to be a
reference implementation. In theory, they could write a completely
proprietary implementation of the protocol in the future. That would
work with an unmodified version of their program. It seems illogical
to state that their program is a derived work but will stop being one
if a third program is written.
In my (completely uninformed) opinion this is "mere aggregation".
> But one popular perception is that the product (i.e. their program
> plus the GPLed server) is a work derived from the both their proprietary
> one, and the GPLed one; and that the terms of the GPL thus apply to the
> whole.
>
> Is that really true?
Only if you modify the GPLed one; if you don't modify it you are OK.
I'd say only the modified GPLed server is a derived work. The entirety
in no more than a distribution.
> Someone (who isn't a lawyer) said:
>
> A <<product>> is not a "work of authorship". Copyright is about
> "works of authorship" and cannot be used to allow or disallow
> behavior based on whether you have <<combined>> two things at an
> engineering level to make a product.
>
> And that the combination described above results neither in a derived
> work, nor in a copyrightable compilation, but merely in a parcel of
> goods; and that since no infringing work has been created, all the
> company has to do in order to comply with the GPL is to make their
> modified POP server source code available.
>
> Thoughts?
Thoughts might be to contact the copyright holder of the GPLed product
and see if he can grant you a license to sell it without releasing the
source, or some similar arrangement.
I'd say that if the source code of the modified server is made
available then all GPL obligations are fulfilled.
-- b
PS: POP3 is hardly brain surgery -- write a pop3d from scratch and
avoid the entire mess is my thought.
