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Date:      Fri, 5 Sep 2003 20:01:43 -0400
From:      Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>
To:        David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
Cc:        Mark Murray <mark@grondar.org>
Subject:   Re: Ugly Huge BSD Monster
Message-ID:  <20030906000143.GA620@online.fr>
In-Reply-To: <MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKAEAGGGAA.davids@webmaster.com>
References:  <20030905162159.GA3542@online.fr> <MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKAEAGGGAA.davids@webmaster.com>

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David Schwartz said on Sep  5, 2003 at 14:36:01:
> 
> > 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.)

Well I was talking of cases where you had possible access to the code.
I'm not sure about software precedents, I admit, but someone who
plagiarises a book can be sued by the original author simply on the
basis of similarity -- if the original work is published and available,
that's sufficient; it's not necessary to prove that you actually bought
it and read it, it's sufficient that you had access to it if you wanted
it.  In practice, most plagiarism cases are either rather flimsy, or
settled out of court before a trial.  Here's a nice article:
http://slate.msn.com/id/1785/  

In the software world, the source code is usually not widely available
outside the originating company, but I was referring to cases where it
is: eg, under Sun's or Microsoft's not-quite-open-source licences, or
code published in books but with a restrictive copyright; or cases where
the people suing you can prove you had it, eg an NDA.

- Rahul


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