From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1I955Q-0003lk-OE for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:16:29 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l6CKFTiP026001; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:15:29 GMT Received: from smtp.ferdyx.org (170.Red-213-96-222.staticIP.rima-tde.net [213.96.222.170]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l6CKCoKK022407 for ; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:12:51 GMT Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.ferdyx.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E41B08D30C for ; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:08:05 +0200 (CEST) Received: from smtp.ferdyx.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (tungsteno [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 05075-09 for ; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:07:45 +0200 (CEST) Received: from snowflake (82-41-57-20.cable.ubr08.edin.blueyonder.co.uk [82.41.57.20]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.ferdyx.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6AA0D8D35A for ; Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:07:44 +0200 (CEST) Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:12:15 +0100 From: Ciaran McCreesh To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Watch out for license changes to GPL-3. Message-ID: <20070712211215.66b62994@snowflake> In-Reply-To: <1184270329.8615.13.camel@inertia.twi-31o2.org> References: <4690C4B8.4000407@gentoo.org> <1184264665.8615.4.camel@inertia.twi-31o2.org> <20070712193146.694917f6@snowflake> <200707121500.14681.vapier@gentoo.org> <20070712200736.2a79eaff@snowflake> <1184267678.26227.9.camel@localhost> <1184270329.8615.13.camel@inertia.twi-31o2.org> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.9.2 (GTK+ 2.10.11; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary=Sig_DOl4jahHrlN7c+wPiWXtAZp; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=PGP-SHA1 X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p10 (Debian) at ferdyx.org X-Archives-Salt: 90712ef9-02f7-4dc9-8e6d-e7e351335809 X-Archives-Hash: 20520fdcf295865dfb5a5440a5d9ecbc --Sig_DOl4jahHrlN7c+wPiWXtAZp Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:58:49 -0700 Chris Gianelloni wrote: > > It would be an interesting question, though, to prove that someone > > wrote a from-scratch ebuild via looking only at the documentation, > > and without basing any parts off of already existing ebuilds in the > > tree, no? >=20 > How likely is this? I know for a fact that people have already done it and are redistributing works created that way without a Foundation copyright or any "Based upon blah, which is copyright Gentoo blah" notice. I'm not aware of any non-GPL-2 ebuilds being distributed, but if it is claimed that all ebuilds are derived works of skel.ebuild then there's still a copyright issue here. > Let me put it another way. I write ebuilds all the time. I don't > need to look at the documentation or any other ebuilds to write a new > one. However, any ebuild I write is a derived work of previous > ebuilds. Why? Because I used skel.ebuild and other ebuilds already > in the tree as the basis for the ebuilds I originally wrote. Because > I no longer need to actually *look* at other ebuilds doesn't change > that my entire knowledge base for ebuild writing is derived from > other ebuilds, which were based on other ebuilds before them.=20 Getting an idea or knowledge from somewhere doesn't subject something to copyright or licence requirements. There may be patent and non-disclosure issues, but neither are applicable here. > Also, I would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to write an > ebuild that is even slightly complex without using the eclasses, at > all. Sure, it is *possible* that someone is capable of writing an > ebuild entirely from scratch, but the likelihood is pretty much > nonexistent. As I understand it, merely using an eclass doesn't force GPL-2 on an ebuild because there's no linkage involved. > We could just end this really quickly and require all ebuilds > submitted be done under GPLv2. Sure, but what about third party ebuilds? Claiming that all ebuilds are derived work of a Gentoo-copyrighted ebuild effectively requires all ebuilds that don't have Gentoo copyright to include a statement like: # Based upon skel.ebuild, which is Copyright 1999-2007 Gentoo Foundation There are quite a few things out there that do not currently comply with this requirement. If the Foundation truly believes that all ebuilds are derived works, they should issue some kind of statement saying so. --=20 Ciaran McCreesh --Sig_DOl4jahHrlN7c+wPiWXtAZp Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=signature.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGlosf96zL6DUtXhERAlaOAJsEjkHbAJKRnTakzYjqTnUHjGO2mgCgijfG 4Fmije2Jgic6YfLIzg750Gw= =RIVA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Sig_DOl4jahHrlN7c+wPiWXtAZp-- -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list