Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:01:21 -0700 From: Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com>, hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org, Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>, Chris Mason <mason@suse.com>, Josh MacDonald <jmacd@CS.Berkeley.EDU>, Parity Error <bootup@mail.ru>, freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG, reiserfs-dev@namesys.com Subject: Re: [reiserfs-dev]i Re: metadata update durability ordering/softupdates Message-ID: <15519.22497.316581.402630@caddis.yogotech.com> In-Reply-To: <3C9F1329.E4BFC6D4@mindspring.com> References: <20020318174641.A1153@hpdi.ath.cx> <3C9676B4.49A76589@mindspring.com> <3C9E1DA4.1090703@namesys.com> <3C9E6E28.9D0B8778@mindspring.com> <3C9F0500.4050206@namesys.com> <3C9F0730.418A94BE@mindspring.com> <3C9F1638.4020707@namesys.com> <3C9F1329.E4BFC6D4@mindspring.com>
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> There was actually a lawsuit brought by the FSF over a case of > a software product for cryuptography whic used an interface > to an LGPL'ed library which was unique. Actually, it wasn't a lawsuit, it was the threat of a lawsuit. > The case failed to go to trial, when the software vendor wrote a > plug-in replacement for the LGPL'ed library to show that the code was > not itself derivative of the library because of the unique interface. It wasn't a vendor, it was an individual. And, the code in question was the bignum library, so the individual took 2 days to write a *REALLY* *REALLY* *REALLY* slow version of the library that was functionally equivalent to the GNU version, and the threat was dropped. > Actually, this would have been a hard case to win, since the > interface copyright failure by Apple, Microsoft, and the > earlier Ashton Tate vs. Clipper, Inc. case over the dBase III > language definition, in which it was held that a computer > language could not be copyright (this is als an argument > against case (3) above, which is an equivalent data interface). RMS was (to put it mildly) unhappy, but did not pursue it after the alternative library was made available. To this point, the GNU license has never actually been tested in court, and I don't believe the above case would have been a good one to try, for the reasons above, plus others to esoteric to mention. Nate To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message
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