If the author doesn't respond, it's best to move on. Either use their GPL, or completely rewrite it, to avoid infringing on their work. It should be in it's own separate files, so it doesn't get absorbed into that other work's more restrictive license, before it is its own work. You'll need to look more into that.
Their copyright of the work is what you have to avoid, which is allowed for use by its respective license variant: GPL, LGPL, BSD, ISC, Apache, MIT, etc. These publications help with what constitutes general and software copyright, to avoid infringing on developers' licensed copyrights. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf - Copyright Basics https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf - Works not Protected by Copyright https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.pdf - Copyright Registration of Computer Programs There are other organizing bodies on copyright, that will convey useful information too. "The copyright law does not protect the func- tional aspects of a computer program, such as the program’s algorithms, formatting, functions, logic, or system design." An "ad minima" such as adding obvious words and minimum content like "an" or "the" also don't account for copyright protection. Lists and facts don't account for copyright. I don't really understand, if the section "Derivative Computer Programs" in circ61 is referring to an author's own work, or others' works. This is worth investigating. The core FreeBSD was rewritten from scratch, as in completely different code that accomplished the objective of removed code. It's like the difference between a car, shoes, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a scooter, a train, and a dolly for function of transport, that most have the inclusion of the common public domain wheel. I'm not familiar with code. But when there's a story, set of facts, other ideas, or other information, there are many ways to write about it, without infringing on a copyright. There are many summaries, or book reports that don't infringe on the author's work, but they all accomplish the task of depicting that work. Drawings are a little different: freehand drawing still violates a copyright of the original work, even if the end result looks fundamentally different than the photo it is from. I hope this clears up some ideas about licenses, and their relation to what is covered by softwares' respective copyrights. _______________________________________________ freebsd-ports@freebsd.org mailing list https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-ports-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
