26 Nov
2012
26 Nov
'12
1:52 p.m.
On Monday 26 November 2012 07:28:34 Grekim did opine:
IANAL, but its my understanding that if you "borrowed" that code, it
probably has a license note at the top of the file it came from, and if
that file was GPL'd, then your whole effort could be infected. The only
way out in that case is to give another coder who has not seen that code, a
specification of what it must do, and then let him write those functions in
a 'clean room'. Then remove the alsa code and put the new code in its
place.
Sometimes you'll get cleaner, more compact code if you are accurate in
doing the specification. AIUI, you can't do it because you've seen the
alsa code, and the courts have held that you are then contaminated.
However, since IANAL, please do consult with one reasonably familiar with
such issues for the 'official' thoughts on the matter.
Cheers, Gene
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.
Space is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen to you.
Please, read
the GPL again, all versions. GPLv3 in particular gives
the legal teams at places like the Free Software Foundation or the
Electronic Freedom Foundation, the legal power, if you assign the
copyrights to them (this is required so they have standing in a court
of law to bring the suit in the first place), to go after the thieves
and cheats. Generally they get compliance with the GPL, but there
have also been some cases where the violators have been fined some
quite decent sums of money. You won't get much if anything, but rest
assured, the thieves and cheats WILL be brought to heel, at no cost
to you.
There are exceptions to that of course, does anyone here remember how
much those 2 blackbox coders collected?
Cheers, Gene
Thanks Gene. I'm going to need to read that about 25 times before I
get a full handle on it. But, in a moment of panic here I am wondering
if I am violating GPL by using some ALSA functions in my code?