[LAD] Fwd: Fw: Re: At the hands of Professor Keller and Raymond

[Ralf Mardorf]

PS:
> Even if you changed headers 
> original done by other authors for more than 50% of the code, it must be 
> noticeable who was the original author and that you changed it. There's 
> a stipulation: "a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent 
> notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change."

I guess this should protect the reliability of the software. If thousand 
people change xyz.h, we need to know if we got the original xyz.h, with 
the original functionality or if we got a derivate, that might has lost 
it's compatibility. Copyrights done under the GPL should protect the 
software and users, less the authors, that's why it's called a copyleft. 
You only can make the software name, logos etc. copyright, not the code, 
if you are using GPL code.

"[snip] My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: 
spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to 
spread <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-copyleft.html>, replacing 
proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society 
better.

That's the basic reason why the GNU General Public License is written 
the way it is—as a copyleft. All code added to a GPL-covered program 
must be free software, even if it is put in a separate file. I make my 
code available for use in free software, and not for use in proprietary 
software, in order to encourage other people who write software to make 
it free as well. I figure that since proprietary software developers use 
copyright to stop us from sharing, we cooperators can use copyright to 
give other cooperators an advantage of their own: they can use our code. 
[snip]" (Richard Stallman)