[fpc-pascal] Notice: Possible copyright infringements in FPC code base

Michael Van Canneyt michael at freepascal.org
Wed Jan 16 14:18:10 CET 2008



On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Roberto Padovani wrote:

> I've been following this topic from the beginning and I took the time
> to read the (questionable) blog from the ex-CG developer.
> 
> I'm interested in it because aside my personal enjoyment, I started
> using freepascal+lazarus where I work in order to quickly solve some
> needs like data analysis, algorithms benchmarking before
> implementation, controlling our hardware from the pc, and so
> on...related to the hardware we design (I'm a hardware engineer).
> 
> Well, what kind of implication should I expect if, for any reason,
> things turn to bad?
> Those implication suggested by the blogger are so serious that if I
> were trusting him, I would immediately erase all disks with my pascal
> stuff and buy new ones.

Not too much implication, for you, normally:

1. If you have a licensed copy of Delphi, you can ignore it: 
   you are allowed to use this source code.

   (We do not have the right to distribute it, but that is our problem,
    which we must solve, and which we are solving)

2. If you don't have a licensed copy, you can still use the GPLed version of
   CLX which is freely downloadable from Sourceforge: it is the same code as
   the Delphi code. It does mean that your application needs to be GPLed. 
   If you don't distribute them, this is not a problem at all...

So the only case when you could have problems is when both the following 
conditions are true:
a) you don't have a registered Delphi
b) you use FPC/Lazarus to create and distribute closed-source commercial software.

In this case, then the remedy is to wait for the next release which has
the clean-room code, and simply recompile your application.
It is also under the assumption that Codegear actually can prove that we
have been infringing on copyright. 

Things get more complicated even because Codegear is US based, and most FPC
development happens in Europe and south america: I don't know whether a US
copyright is enforceable here in europe.

Note that this is my understanding of things, and in no way binding legal
advice, I am not a lawyer after all... :-)

Michael.



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