Hi, Il 20/03/19 12:25, Giacomo Tesio ha scritto: > The current construct is a violation of the GPL term as that code is > derivative of GPL code for all intents and purposes. So much that it > cannot even compile without the GPL code. I don't understand what does this matter. Copyright apply to thing independently of whether they compile or not. If I write a lot of broken C code in a file, but do so without copying anything from elsewhere, that is just a new work that does not depend on anything. The intent with which I write it or the possibility to merge it with other code to make something working is irrelevant. And that does not depend on any license: this is just how copyright laws work (by the simple fact that copyright laws make no mention of what "compiling" and "linking" are what the writer's intentions are). > Much like if I write an original novel containing the characters and > places of Harry Potter, it's a derivative work of Rowling's one. > And I guess that I couldn't print and sell it without paying right to her. If anything, that proves the opposite of what you sating, namely that FRR is right: there are tons of fandom works based on characters, places and concepts introduced by Rowling in her works, both with and without modifications. They do not appear to be illegal at all, and it never occurred to me to learn that the authors of such works are being or could be prosecuted. Copyright does not protect ideas or concepts, it protects expressed works. I could rewrite the whole of Harry Potter's seven books off my mind, without directly copying the original ones, and it would be perfectly legal, although I admit it could be an interesting case how to prove that I did not actually copy from the original books. For similar reasons, people who write programs starting from reverse engineered information need to be really sure that they can prove they are not copying (i.e., they are doing a clean room implementation), but other than that there is nothing preventing them to do so. ReactOS people know something about this. So this example really convinces me that FRR people are doing right, and there is no reason for Debian to change anything there. Giovanni. -- Giovanni Mascellani <g.mascellani@gmail.com> Postdoc researcher - Université Libre de Bruxelles
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