16 Nov
2011
16 Nov
'11
8:08 p.m.
The bottom line here, for this paragraph, is that if
you don't like the
license terms, you are perfectly free to write your own version of the
wheel, just do it in a clean room, you cannot have ever seen a copy of that
source code. If, OTOH, you are not capable of doing that, and the only way
to get the job done is to use something that has a license that is
distasteful to you, then you should retrain your taste buds and comply with
the terms. The license & copyright notices the author chooses to put on
his output ARE what he/she puts on it and you have zero rights to decide
otherwise.
In Canada, at least, the above is not quite true. I don't know about
elsewhere, but we are fortunate to still have protections for educational
use, so I definitely can learn from other peoples code, regardless of
license, and then re-implement it myself. Where the line is between copying
and re-implementing based on education is for the courts to decide, but
just thought i should point out that 'never having seen the source code'
would only be an issue IFF the infringement was already judged to be
copying.
Iain