Dan Wrote, >>This came up a while back in regards to GCC. Someone was working on a
>>front (or back, I don't recall) end to gcc to dump out the internal >>representation of source as XML for some damn thing or other. I am working on something like that, there are 2-3 other similar projects. I am using the front end tree structures of the gcc to extract information about software into a new visualization and reverse engineering tool. > This >>was essentially stopped (don't recall whether it was stopped >>outright, or GPL was put on the generated rep, which is close enough >>to stopping for most folks) by the GCC folks as they claimed, quite >>rightly, that the internal representation was a derived work of their >>code as well as the original source, and as such they could put their >>license on it too. I had stopped distribution for a while on my own accord. It was not stopped by the gcc. I had stopped for a while, out of respect of the wishes of the gcc group and rms. It now turns out that they are doing the same themselves. There is not any real policy or consistency in the actions of the gcc and fsf group, therefore I will hold back any longer. The gcc interface project has been offically restarted. http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-10/msg00806.html >> quite >>rightly, that the internal representation was a derived work of their >>code as well as the original source, and as such they could put their >>license on it too. This is not correct, there is no way to enforce that via the GPL, which is based on copyright. Look at the dumping of the ASTS into GraphViz Format. The only arguments which are pretty weak where that the data structures are copyrighted, but there is no real case for it. Just lots and lots of FUD from the gcc developers. >> This doesn't apply to object files that gcc >>generates as there's explicit disclaiming of ownership on them in >>gcc's license, as there is with pretty much all compilers. This does not apply to any of the input or output files of a GPled software, only the creative work of a person can be copyrighted. Mechanical translations are just derived works. mike ===== James Michael DuPont http://introspector.sourceforge.net/ __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/
