Re: "Preferred form of work" Re: Keyspan Firmware fun
> What about if the preferred form changes? For example, you have two
> authors, one who keeps the program as a literate program and the
> other one who keeps it as straight source, and they convert it whenever
> they exchange code. Is the preferred form literate or illiterate? Can
> the literate author 'tangle' it and release it?
The simple answer is that the code must be in the preferred form of
the person distributing the code. So if the literate person
distributes the code, that person has to distribute the literate
sources. Likewise for the illiterate person. If they distribute it
jointly, then it could be in either form, and still comply.
> Alternately, what about a program whose binary form has become the
> primary form of editing it? Say, some company releases one of the
> old Commodore or NES games under a GPL license, but doesn't release
> the source. Does it matter that a number of people can and are
> hacking on the binary? Does it make any difference if the source has
> been lost by now?
If a company releases the old game under the GPL, but doesn't provide
the source, then they haven't really released under the GPL. No one
will be able to distribute the game, because they can't also provide
sources. In any case, if the preferred source for modifications
changes over time, then, yes, what you have to distribute changes
also.
Regards,
Walter Landry
landry@physics.utah.edu
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