From:	Stan Shebs <shebs AT andros DOT cygnus DOT com>
Subject:	Re: Starting all over from 16.1 ?
14 Feb 1997 11:24:11 -0800 :
Distribution:	cygnus
Message-ID:	<xdhgjfp4wz.fsf@andros.cygnus.com>
References:	<3303EA8D DOT 17C9 DOT cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT kamus DOT it>
X-Newsreader:	Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

assini AT kamus DOT it (Pasqualino Assini) writes:

> If 16.1 or something similar is still LGPLed couldn't we 
> 
> (by we I mean those who don't find it amusing to see
> cygnus.dll becoming a commercial product)
> 
> just start a new developement thread from it and keep it LGPLed ?
> 
> Or cygnus can retrospectively change the status of a version
> from LGPL to GPL ?

Much of the older code has no explicit terms on it at all, which means
that it is by default "all rights reserved".  I don't think there's
any problem with hacking away on it as a personal project, but any
honest and knowledgeable lawyer would tell you to stay miles away from
it for a commercial product.  After all, perhaps Cygnus might get
bought by AT&T or something, and they would decide to exercise their
rights and go after commercial products using old cygwin32 stuff.
(Knowledgeable lawyers should be able to quote you plenty of similar
cases - for instance, the Symbolics code grab that was one of the
impetuses for RMS starting GNU in the first place, or the contention
over Berkeley sources.)

							Stan

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