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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 20:25:51 -0400
From: "David A. Cobb" <superbiskit AT home DOT com>
Organization: Excite/AtHome User on Cox Cable
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To: Charles Wilson <cwilson AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
CC: Cygwin Library General Discussion <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>,
        NewLib Discussion <newlib AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
Subject: Re: Licensing Issues?
References: <3B9FD58F DOT 7000308 AT home DOT com> <3B9FDC6C DOT 2000502 AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
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Charles Wilson wrote:
> David A. Cobb wrote:
> 
>> Would someone in the know please explain why there are licensing 
>> issues between GLibC and Newlib?  Are they not both GPL?
>>
> 
> Sigh.  this has been explained so many times I am surprised your search 
> of the archives did not reveal it.  You *did* search the archives, right?
> 
> Cygnus (now Red Hat) releases cygwin under two licenses: the GPL and a 
> proprietary license.  People who purchase cygwin under the proprietary 
> license are allowed to distribute cygwin-based binaries WITHOUT 
> distributing their source code.  (You may not like this arrangement, but 
> it's the way things are.  Besides, the proceeds pay Chris' and Corinna's 
> and others' salaries...)

Yes, I knew that much.

> 
> Anyway, ONLY the copyright owner of a particular work is allowed to 
> establish the license terms.  If you take GPL code that you do not own, 
> you can't change the license -- although the GPL gives you certain 
> redistribution rights.

OK, one cannot simply "borrow" (steal) from it even when it's open.

> 
> Since Red Hat needs to specify the license, they need to own the code. 
> They don't own the glibc code.  Therefore they can't use it (as part of 
> cygwin1.dll -- e.g. newlib)  [This also explains why everybody who 
> contributes to cgywin1.dll must sign over copyright to Red Hat].

And glibc is, I presume, owned by FSF.

> 
> --Chuck

Must one then observe "white room" conditions when developing, say, for 
a piece to go into newlib & cgywin1?  That is, carefully avoid knowing 
/anything/ about the glibc implementation?

To what extent may one legitimately learn from a free-speech program 
without actually extracting code?  This is very much like an old 
question about what, precisely, is copyrighted.  Once upon a time I knew 
the answer - the exact program text.  But that was before the new 
copyright laws and the days of software patents.

A library such as this must implement a very well-defined result; it 
would be pretty surprising if two implementations did not have a great 
deal in common.  Even short sequences, at least, of instructions are 
very likely in both.

-- 
David A. Cobb, Software Engineer, Public Access Advocate, All around 
nice guy.
New PGP key 09/13/2001:
:<http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=superbiskit&\
fingerprint=on>
:<http://wwwkeys.pgp.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=superbiskit&\
fingerprint=on>
Fingerprint=0x{E7C6_4EE2_6B75_5BA3_C52E__77FA_63C3_9366_DCFB_229B}
"By God's Grace I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner."
--The Way of a Pilgrim, R. M. French [tr.]
Potentially Viral Software is any software for which you are not allowed
to examine the source.  Do not buy or use Potentially Viral Software!


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