> >That's specific to that jurisdiction, not a part of a license. On Wed, May 12, 2004 at 03:11:20PM -0300, Humberto Massa wrote: > I said it in other post: Brazilian law is modelled closed on the Berne > convention; possibly other jurisdictions have similar dispositions.
And to some degree, any jurisdiction must have some provisions for implicitly approved copies, or it's not meaningful to distribute contemporary proprietary copyrighted computer programs. But some people have made claims that there are certain things we require of the license (such as the complete absence of restrictions on the right to create derivative works), regardless of the law. > >Alternatively, how are you combining gcc and metafont without making a > >copy of the software which combines gcc and metafont? > Why would you want to do that? Perhaps I'm building a just-in-time compiler for some rendering environment. > Let's see, step-by-step: > 1. I get gcc's sources; > 1. (a) I have a valid license to it; > 2. I get metafont sources; > 2. (a) I also have a valid license to this; > -- up to this point, no license violation > 3. I make modifications to gcc and to metafont, taking care of : > 3. (a) not removing any copyright (C) notices -- they are already there, > I don't need to put them, I received gcc under the terms of the GPL, > with the notices, and the disclaimer (as to satisfy GPL#1); > 3. (b) marking the changed files as changed as to satisfy GPL#2, 'a'; Here's where you start running into problems: GPL#2 requires you satisfy GPL#1 for the modified work, which now includes stuff you do not have the right to put under GPL's terms. The subsequent steps you've proposed do not rectify this issue. Alternatively you've not yet created a work combining both, but when you do reach that point you'll still have this issue: ... > 4. I will write my files needed to integrate both, taking all the > necessary precautions 3 a-d above. Notice that probably my files (unless > completely unrelated) are derived works both of metafont and of gcc. > -- no license violation. What are the appropriate license notices you've placed? How do they satisfy the GPL requirements about the license on the work as a whole? And then there's the copies you would need to make for test and debug purposes... Of course, if this is done in a jurisdiction where copyright isn't required for these copies then there is no issue. Also, until the author(s) of gcc do not care to act on this case then you are not going to be subject to penalties for infringement. But that's not because the GPL has granted copyright for this case. -- Raul