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Date:      Fri, 5 Sep 2003 14:36:01 -0700
From:      "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com>
To:        "Rahul Siddharthan" <rsidd@online.fr>, "Brett Glass" <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        Mark Murray <mark@grondar.org>
Subject:   RE: Ugly Huge BSD Monster
Message-ID:  <MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKAEAGGGAA.davids@webmaster.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030905162159.GA3542@online.fr>

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> There are still issues like "there are only so many ways to write a
> for loop" and "you could have copied it and obfuscated it".  These
> things are very hard to prove, but if you want to worry about such
> accusations, you'd better worry about commercial non-GPL companies
> first.  They need not prove, either, that you ever saw their code:
> they would claim that the similarity is sufficient that you could not
> have written your code independently without seeing theirs.
[snip]
> - Rahul

	No. They must prove that you saw their code. If they cannot prove access,
they cannot prove a copyright violation. (You cannot copy what you did not
have access to.)

	People often misunderstand the Harrison case as showing that similarity is
sufficient to prove access. But in the Harrison case, there was no dispute
that Harrison had access to and in fact heard the work he was accused of
copying.

	If you can cite any law or case law to the contrary, please do. (And if you
have proprietary code, do *NOT* brag about how secure your systems are, it
will come back to haunt you!)

	DS





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