Re: Reusing GPL code without applying GPL legal in Europe?
Sebastian Wangnick <sebastian.home.nospam01@wangnick.de> wrote:
[ http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=377109;msg=186 ]
> Mr. Schilling claims the following:
> In Europe, we have the "Recht auf das wissenschaftliche Kleinzitat"
> that allows us to cite other works without asking in case that the
> quoted text (or images) is not too big compared to the own "intellectual
> creation level". [...]
Elsewhere in Europe (England), we only have the permission to do that for
limited purposes such as private study or commentary, as I understand it.
http://www.jenkins-ip.com/patlaw/cdpa1.htm#s28
I suspect Mr Schilling is citing a German law, which may protect Germans
from some copyright infringement accusations in the way he describes,
but would not suffice for free software distributors in other parts of
Europe, as it would limit the field of use. Keep us informed if more
details appear, please.
Also note that the size of quote is really very limited. The so-called
creativity threshold is fairly low (FSF estimates it can be as low as 15
lines of code
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Legally-Significant.html#Legally-Significant
), so the 'cited' code has to be a small snippet.
Side notes from the full message:
- Mr Schilling's repeated claims that his mangled English is better for
interpreting the GPL than a native speaker is something that's annoyed
me before - now he's added a demand that participants need to understand
legal German, I doubt a sensible discussion is possible;
- repeated complaints about others not being careful and thorough
enough look rather silly if one then calls the licence 'GOL'.
Hope that explains,
--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
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