[fpc-devel] 2.0.4-rc3 available

[Daniël Mantione]

Op Tue, 15 Aug 2006, schreef Jonas Maebe:

> =

> On 15 Aug 2006, at 13:29, Marco van de Voort wrote:
> =

> > > On 15 Aug 2006, at 12:41, Jonas Maebe wrote:
> > > =

> > > > Not only passing them on, but to re-license them under the GPL or
> > > > (modified) LGPL.
> > > =

> > > Or pretty much any other Open Source/Free Software license for that
> > > matter...
> > =

> > I was thinking more for reference, and less for reuse.
> =

> The problem is that if you use source code "for reference", your source c=
ode
> automatically gets tainted by the original one. To be clean you would need
> someone to write reference documentation based on the original source cod=
e,
> and other people reading this documentation to write their own implementa=
tion
> (like Phoenix did with the original IBM Bios).

In that case Borland own copyrights on our RTL.

The actual situation is more nuanced. Implementing from documentation is =

one way you are reasonably sure to be free from copyright claims.

However, having studied foreign source code does not mean your own source =

code is poluted, for example article 45l of Dutch copyright law is quite a =
legal
obstable for someone claiming copyright infringement.

The border between tainted and not tained code is not written in any law, =

and will be up to personal interpretation to judges.

Dani=EBl