On Wednesday 09 July 2008, Joerg Schilling wrote: > If "the schily makefile system" was under GPL, _then_ there was a > problem because the GPL limits the freedom to use software. As "the > schily makefile system" is under the more free CDDL that (in contrary > to the GPL) does not limit the freedom to use software, there is no > problem. > > > mkisofs/Makefile is a "derived work" from "the schily makefile > system". The CDDL gives you the freedom to have a derived work under > a license that is not the CDDL. > > "the schily makefile system" is _definitely_ _not_ a derived work > from mkisofs/Makefile
As the GPL is a copyleft, and relies on copyright to be enforceable, it's prudent to consider what constitutes a derived work, and if a claimed derived work is indeed a derived work at all. SCO's claims about header files, and the bruha surrounding XFS when first merged into mainline are examples of how this can be a gray area. To my mind Makefiles make most sense when viewed as independent free standing works, or possibly as not copyrightable (if they are the only possible expression of a desired result). I'm not familiar enough with Joerg's build system to have much of a valid opinion, so a few technical questions that Joerg (the author) is best positioned to answer: 1. Are your Makefiles unique and peculiar to your build system, so that no other build system could conceivably use them? 2. Briefly, what would be involved to have cdrtools built by a different build system? And a few questions about your intentions for your code: 1. Do you permit users to modify and redistribute the Makefiles? 2. How do you feel about users or distros replacing your build system and Makefiles with a different system? Leaving aside their reasons for doing this, did you intend with the licensing for them to receive this right? 3. Would you be willing to dual-license the build system and/or Makefiles as CDDL/GPL? It seems to me you don't lose anything if you did this. -- Alan McKinnon alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
