In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ciaran O'Riordan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But if you looked at Linux, decided the scheduler was crap, and then wrote a > completely new scheduler for Linux, then that would be a derivative work, > AFAICT. Whether you link or compile it all together, or whether you output > one file or multiple, wouldn't be a deciding factor, AFAIK.
OK, but how about this. Suppose *I* look at the schedular, decide that it is crap, and so I modify Linux so that the scheduler can be loaded at run time. To make a scheduler using my system, you write a function in C named my_scheduler, with an interface that I define. You compile that to an object file using "gcc -o my_scheduler.c". To load the scheduler, you run a new command I provide, "load_scheduler", giving it the .o file containing your scheduler code. I have designed my interface to be not Linux specific. It represents a general abstraction of scheduling, and maps Linux scheduling parameters and settings to more abstract things. HYPOTHETICAL #1. I also write my new scheduler, and distribute it, along with my patches that modify the kernel to add the schedule loader. Is my scheduler a derivative work of the kernel? HYPOTHETICAL #2. I do not write a scheduler. I limit my contribution to modifying the kernel to work with schedulers following my specification. You write a scheduler, following my specification. Is your scheduler a derivative work of Linux? HYPOTHETICAL #3. Someone over at Microsoft sees my work, and decides that loadable, generic schedulers are cool. Microsoft puts this feature in the next version of Windows. They do not take any code from my implementation. All they do is use the same interface as mine. They do such a good job that binary schedular files for Linux work out of the box with Windows. Does this change the answer to #1 or #2? Does it matter whether or not your scheduler or mine was written after Microsoft makes the aforementioned version of Windows available? -- --Tim Smith _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss