Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2019 12:14:01 -0600 From: Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com> To: Ian Lepore <ian@freebsd.org> Cc: Dirk-Willem van Gulik <dirkx@webweaving.org>, Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>, freebsd-hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, Gleb Popov <arrowd@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: A bounty of 450 (was $100) for rtsx SD card reader driver. Message-ID: <03F712F6-02BD-4542-AF13-DC48568AFEC0@netgate.com> In-Reply-To: <cec4f77affabe707b902cc943a0d308541736587.camel@freebsd.org> References: <cec4f77affabe707b902cc943a0d308541736587.camel@freebsd.org>
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> On Nov 2, 2019, at 10:51 AM, Ian Lepore <ian@freebsd.org> wrote: >=20 > And just how do you draw the line between "I looked at the linux code as a= source of information" and "I copied the linux code in violation of its GPL= license" ? (I am not a lawyer, and if I was, I am not your lawyer...) If you copy, then you are subject to whatever license you got with the origi= nal code.=20 One of the normal legal tests (in copyright law, but not, say, patent law) i= s that what=E2=80=99s in your head is yours. Copyright only covers the expre= ssion of an idea in a fixed medium.=20 So you can study the code (assuming that you have legal access), gain unders= tanding, and write your own implementation, using only that understanding. One of the huge =E2=80=9Cgotchas=E2=80=9D is if copying of non-functional el= ements of the source code occurs. These include things like comments, varia= ble names, indentation style, etc.=20 To that end, a certain other BSD project once copied unpublished code to a W= iFi driver and, =E2=80=9CTada!!=E2=80=9D published the result, claiming reve= rse-engineering.=20 Only they even left the comments intact.=20 When challenged on this, the other BSD project had the audacity to get SFLC (= the people who sue over the GPL) to step in and say it was all OK. To be c= lear, neither the original source, nor the =E2=80=9Cderived=E2=80=9D code wa= s/is GPL licensed.=20 One of the best ever FreeBSD Developers now works on Linux full-time in part= due to this incident. And so it goes... So even if you don=E2=80=99t step on a landmine when copying GPL (or other) c= ode, you might step in s***. =20 Best to be careful and keep it clean, right?
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