Re: GPL & Possible Derivative Work

[Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com>]

Michael K. Edwards wrote:

>If you don't have any contractual relationship to the vendor or any
>information obtained through privileged access, then you don't have to
>worry about trade secrets, just copyright.
>
Michael,

Clean-room is an excellent strategy for avoiding copyright infringement.
It enables someone to write a functionally compatible program without
having seen the original. In an infringement case, it makes it entirely
plausable to the court that the writer never saw the original
implementation and was working only from the functional description.

I'm not clear why you didn't consider that.

    Thanks

    Bruce