On Fri, May 30, 2003 at 09:25:03AM +0200, Sven Luther wrote:
> Hello, ...
>
> I came on a program that is distributed under the GPL with the addition
> of the following exception :
>
> Derivative works must not remove the original author's copyright
> notices, name or comments from source code and documentation. Doing
> so will violate the license.
I hope the copyright holder realizes that this restriction is
unenforceable under copyright law if the source code and documentation
are rewritten such that they are no longer derivative works.
Also, I wonder if the copyright holder intends to sue people for doing
the following:
--- foo.c 2003-06-02 12:36:58.000000000 -0500
+++ foo.c.new 2003-06-02 12:37:11.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
#include <stdio.h>
/* Copyright 2003 Pride Goeth Before a Fall Productions, Inc. */
-/* Copyright 2003 Pride Goeth Before a Fall Productions, Inc. */
-/* Copyright 2003 Pride Goeth Before a Fall Productions, Inc. */
-/* Copyright 2003 Pride Goeth Before a Fall Productions, Inc. */
-/* Copyright 2003 Pride Goeth Before a Fall Productions, Inc. */
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int foo;
> I had the impression that the GPL already provides for forcing the
> original copyright notice and author name to stay in the modified work,
> but could not pinpoint the exact place of it.
Yes, it does, but if the copyright holder is even more strident about
this than the GNU GPL already is, than the software may have a problem
similar to that of PHP-Nuke, recently discussed at great length on this
list.
> Furthermore, the obligation to not remove comments from the source code
> seems to me not compatible with the GPL, but i may be wrong in this.
I don't think you're wrong. This license is not GPL compatible and in
my opinion violates DFSG 3. Being forced to retain comments that are
inapplicable to the code (as may be the case after modification) are a
bad idea from a software engineering perspective, to say nothing of
flagrantly non-Free.
--
G. Branden Robinson | Measure with micrometer,
Debian GNU/Linux | mark with chalk,
branden@debian.org | cut with axe,
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | hope like hell.
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