Re: cdrtools - GPL code with CDDL build system

[Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com>]

Don Armstrong <don@debian.org> writes:

> On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> Given only the source files, writing a makefile that will produce a
>> working executable is fairly simple. I see makefiles as more of a
>> convenience than a necessity to build a program.
>
> You could extend this argument to any segment of sourcecode in the
> program.

Not at all.  Every piece of source code gets compiled into some
machine code (except parts that get optimized out), and so is part of
the work, both before and after compilation.  Exactly how the source
code is transformed into machine code is irrelevant.  You might use
compiler A, I might use compiler B, and someone else might prefer to
do it all by hand.  In each case, the executable is a transformed
version of the source code.  In neither case does any part of a
makefile (or equivalent) get included in the output.  A work can't be
derived from another work without including some piece of it (ignoring
for the moment reuse of literary characters without any verbatim
copying of text taking place).

In many cases a program could be compiled with a command like

  find . -name '*.c' | xargs gcc

If the program is large, gcc will probably run out of memory, but that
makes no difference in principle.  The makefile describes how the work
can be done in smaller steps, nothing else.

Is a printed book a derivative work of the manual for the printing
press?

> Since the output that you get from the compiler is dependent
> on the way in which the compiler was called, just like the way in
> which the source code was written determines the object code you get
> out, this argument isn't terribly persuasive.

The output depends on which compiler is used, and on which options
were given to that compiler.  This still does not change the fact that
the output is a mechanical transformation of the input, and is not a
derivative of anything of which the source was not already.  You can
certainly not be arguing that the source code is derived from the
makefiles.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com