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

[Roberto Padovani]

Thanks a lot!
you can't find a lawyer anywhere when you need it! :-) I'm joking, of course...

Given that I don't have Delphi, suppose that company X ask me to make
a software for them. I might give them the software, with full source
code and a GPL licence note every here and there, and ask money for
the _design_ of the software, instead of the software itself.
How does it sound to you and eventual hidden lawyer "listening" to us ?

thanks for your job, really!
If I were even a little bit good at programming (serious programming
and not just having a computer do what I need), I would be the perfect
clean room programmer....never had any sort of delphi and never read
any source at all !

cheers,

 Roberto


2008/1/16, Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org>:
>
>
> 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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