OT - Closing Off An Open-Source Product

[Bob Kline]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Chris Watson wrote:

> > What?  How does anything you wrote support the assertion that changing a
> > single letter of a work in the public domain entitles you to a
> > legitimate copyright claim in the derived work?
> 
> Go read cluase 2 of the GPL. Its pretty clear what I wrote supports
> that the use of GPL code in any application public domain or NOT,
> will be under a GPL copyright.

It makes absolutely no difference what clause 2 of the GPL says.  
Anyone can craft a license which has unlimited amounts of nonsense in
it.  That doesn't change the _fact_ that making a de minimis alteration
to a work in the public domain will _not_ entitle you to a _legitimate_
copyright in the derived work.

-- 
Bob Kline
mailto:bkline at rksystems.com
http://www.rksystems.com