[sldev] Re: [PROTOCOL] Protocol Documentation

dirk husemann hud at zurich.ibm.com
Sun Oct 7 22:18:54 PDT 2007


Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> On 05-Oct-2007, at 10:44, dirk husemann wrote:
>> Argent Stonecutter wrote:
>>> On 05-Oct-2007, at 01:52, dirk husemann wrote:
>>>> as we have seen
>>>> with SCO you have ALWAYS the possibility of a greedy fool trying to
>>>> attack you anyhow (e.g., claiming that the code you used was stolen
>>>> from
>>>> him, don't mind the BSD/GPL/whatever license).
[..]
>
>> originally they claimed that code had been copied pretty much literally
>> from their code basis --- thus, claiming that code that was used in
>> linux was copied from them. not sure how that is the opposite direction.
>
> That is that it was code copied from their license to GPL, not that
> they were claiming that the GPL or any other open source license
> imposed limitations on someone's use of directly or indirectly derived
> work. So I don't think there's any application here.
>
> The only thing that could conceivably apply is that they claimed both
> literal copying and that IBM's code was a derived work simply because
> it was developed by a licensee (the 'viral UNIX license' theory). That
> should have been dead in the water because of the CSRG-USL row over
> the BSD code, and Novell shot it down anyway.
true. but my point was that *regardless of license type* you can always
be taken to court (at least in the US it seems) --- if the court decides
in your favour: fine --- but you'd have to cough up the funds to defend
yourself first of all. and the SCO case is a "good" example of such a
case. i'm not sure i personally would have those funds...
>
> Linden Labs contributor agreement should protect against any indirect
> claims like that. If Linden Labs states[1] that simply using the code
> to figure out the protocol (including using things like constants from
> header files) does NOT make a work a derived work, that should
> eliminate any concern about direct claims.
it sure would. i think we both agree on that :-)

-- 
dr dirk husemann, pervasive computing, ibm zurich research lab
--- hud at zurich.ibm.com --- +41 44 724 8573 --- SL: dr scofield



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