OT - Closing Off An Open-Source Product

[Chris Watson]

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> Sorry, no matter how noble the GNU folks might be, they can't change the

OR non-noble.

> copyright laws without the cooperation of the courts and/or the
> legislature, and it's not likely they'll be able to enlist the aid of
> either to defeat the longstanding tenet that "de minimis" copyright
> claims are not legitimate.  You want to be careful not to mix copyright
> law with contract law.
> I'm retaining as much of this thread as I have to make sure you still
> have a chance to (re-)read the claim to which I responded, that changing
> a single word or character of a public domain work was sufficient to
> support "a legitimate copyright on the derived work."

That I cant comment on. I do know if its public domain there is no
copyright holder. Now if that means you can (C) a copy of that public
domain code is something I will ask my attorneys. I do know however that
if you take a public domain source base and use GPL code in it. Barring a
court ruling to the contrary that code base BECOMES gpl'ed. Regardless if
its public domain, or copyrighted. It's clause 2 of the GPL that is the
problem here. And the last time I asked my brother (an attorney), he said
with 90% probablity clause 2 would stick in a court of law. Because you
are agreeing to the terms of the GPL by using GPL covered code. So while
he said a court *may* take issue with the 2nd clause you should just avoid
the license and gpl code all together. Or deliberately violate the GPL and
force the FSF into a lawsuit and get it resolved in court once and for
all. I'm not saying you are wrong. Just saying what my understanding is of
public domain and copyright.

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- -Chris Watson         (316) 326-3862 | FreeBSD Consultant, FreeBSD Geek
Work:              scanner at jurai.net | Open Systems Inc., Wellington, Kansas
Home:  scanner at deceptively.shady.org | http://open-systems.net
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