On Sat, 07 May 2005 13:54:22 -0600 Tres Melton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> babbled:
> But If the E developers import your code into a BSD project then won't
> it become BSD? Otherwise that seems like a good plan.
correct - thus the exception clause is kind of pointless :) you may as well go
bsd to start :)
> > well you could make them GPL - but mej can just not accept the patches as
> > they would taint eterm's existing license making it gpl. bsd guarantees
> > that THAT code stays open - but if people can steal it - if i want to
> > "steal" that code and put it into some closed proprietary project - you
> > would never know. it can be reformatted, and at the end of the day its an
> > algorithm. there are only so many ways you can write a fast routine to do a
> > fairly narrow scoped task. if that was the case someone would have claimed
> > copyright infringement on for (i = 0; i < n; i++) a long time ago :)
>
> I take your point about code theft. It is a good one but there are
> exceptions to that. What's that guy's name in Germany that runs
> gpl-violations.org, Harald Welte? He also wrote most of the IP tables
> code. He has gotten a number of companies to comply with the GPL and
> post their code. Every once in awhile hell does freeze over. :-/
oh i know - my point is - it depends what the core "smartness" of the code is -
if its really just a faster alpha blending routine - the moment the code is
open you let out the real secrets. the loop structure it generic - but the
nitty details of how its done are out. a lot of those commands could be
re-ordered with no effect (ie i +=1, j += 1 can be j = j + 1, i = i + 1 with no
ill effects and well - its not copied anymore - proving copyright infringement
on sufficiently modified code is nigh impossible - given the code is small and
its general structure is generic (loop through pixels form top left to bottom
right doing operation X on them from source to destination buffer - that's so
insanely generic), that the only real MEAT of the code is the algorithm to do
the operation - and that is simply expressed explicitly in your code).
basically i can read the code - go "aha - thats how to do it" - and type it out
again myself - not even copy and paste - re-order some things -
customise to my own loop structures and input/output variable names and bingo
- new code - copied from your old, but u'll never have a snowballs chance in
hell of trying to enforce violation :) if the code is large and complex with
very unique characteristics (ala ip tables as part of the kernel) its easy to
find, identify and prove infringement :)
> If for(i = 0; i < n; i++) was patented would it be owned by Brian
> Kerningham or Dennis Ritchie?
the patent would long since have expired :) but copyright is not really
possible as its a generic construct - like "i go home" a generic english
sentence construct. :)
> > anyway - i can understand what you mean - but even if it were gpl you
> > couldn't practically find instances of it in closed code :(. you will know
> > your code will be public and free in eterm's code and available and able to
> > be re-used with very few restrictions, but not more limitations than that.
> >
> > basically if someone submits patches to code - they are implicitly agreeing
> > to the existing copyright license unless they ask for a change or
> > re-license their patches and code. if they are licensed differently the
> > chances of them being used drop dramatically to somewhere about 0 :(
>
> As I stated, Eterm is Mej's baby and he can have my modifications anyway
> that he wants them. That doesn't mean that I can't hope for a license
> change to the GPL though. My SSE2 modifications were originally
a license change would require all copyright holders agree (listed in AUTHORS).
so changing to GPL is a lot harder than you licensing as bsd :) i get your
point - definitely! i guess i'm a pragmatist when it comes to licensing - if
you open the code... you have made it all fair game. anyone can read it and go
"oh that's how its done" and trivially re-produce the important parts, without
copying. that's how i learnt to code - i scour the world for examples and read
manual pages... i haven't copied code - i have learnt the "trick" and applied
it :)
> patterned after the MMX extensions by Willem Monsuwe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
i see you did a similar thing then :)
> anyway. They were changed to run on x86_64, use all 128 bits of the
> SSE2 %xmm registers, and converted to inline assembly to avoid problems
> with a changing register allocator in gcc. They are hardly recognizable
> now and if I worked for M$ Mr. Bill would claim ownership but I'm coding
> for the benefit of everyone and I believe in giving credit where credit
> is due. Cheers to Willem! ;-) I still wish there was someway to
indeed. i think its better to just license liberally and hope to hell people
"play nice" and "do the right thing". :)
> guarantee that my work wouldn't end up in the hands of a morally
> impaired company without at least getting a paycheck. I might be old
> fashioned but I like to get kissed before I get screwed. Your points
> are well taken but I still don't want to be the one to write M$' next
> TCP/IP stack.
agreed - but in all reality - you dont even need source for that. disassembling
binary and reverse engineering from there is not impossible - hell how do you
think most software copy protection is "cracked" :) it's been done for decades
now. even in binary your code isn't safe :(
--
------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------
The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
裸好多 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tokyo, Japan (東京 日本)
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