Re: Possible GPL violation: Geogebra

[Bruce Perens]

On 01/29/2014 11:34 PM, Hendrik Weimer wrote: I'm saying that the final product that is being distributed is a derivative of both the source code *and* the actual language file that is included in the distribution. It seems that you are using derivative in this case to indicate combination of two things into a single program. In the copyright law sense, a "derivative work" is one which incorporates copyrighted work of a different legal entity (Sylvestre in this case) and modifies it in some way to create a new copyrighted work in which elements of the older work still exist. GPL uses the copyright law sense of the word, because it depends on copyright law in order to have the potential for enforcement. So, would a translation file be derivative of an executable program? If they are literal translations of texts (strings) within the original program that are copyrighted by a different legal entity, probably they are. If they are created by the same person who created those texts in the program, they are not a derivative work. Does the combination of the translation files and program elements owned by other legal entities create a derivative work? Or are they simply an aggregation? The verdict of the legal cases I mentioned leads me to believe they are an aggregation. The aggregation may be subject to compilation copyright but that isn't relevant to this discussion. So, while we would like to be able to enforce the GPL terms on this combination of things, there is a strong probability that the other side would be able to convince a court that the law doesn't allow the GPL to apply in this case. Before we have SFLC or some other entity attempt to enforce on Sylvestre's behalf, we should have a stronger position from which to argue. In the meantime, you can render the bad guys irrelevant by creating a GPL-compliant installer and GPL-compliant translation files, and distributing the same. This will be 100 times more effective than attempting to prosecute a weak legal case.     Thanks     Bruce