Re: Re: Watch out for license changes to GPL-3.

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:58:49 -0700
Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2gentoo.org> wrote:
> > It would be an interesting question, though, to
prove that someone
> > wrote a from-scratch ebuild via looking only at
the documentation,
> > and without basing any parts off of already
existing ebuilds in the
> > tree, no?
> 
> How likely is this?

I know for a fact that people have already done it and are
redistributing works created that way without a Foundation
copyright or
any "Based upon blah, which is copyright Gentoo
blah" notice. I'm not
aware of any non-GPL-2 ebuilds being distributed, but if it
is claimed
that all ebuilds are derived works of skel.ebuild then
there's still a
copyright issue here.

> Let me put it another way.  I write ebuilds all the
time.  I don't
> need to look at the documentation or any other ebuilds
to write a new
> one. However, any ebuild I write is a derived work of
previous
> ebuilds.  Why? Because I used skel.ebuild and other
ebuilds already
> in the tree as the basis for the ebuilds I originally
wrote.  Because
> I no longer need to actually *look* at other ebuilds
doesn't change
> that my entire knowledge base for ebuild writing is
derived from
> other ebuilds, which were based on other ebuilds before
them. 

Getting an idea or knowledge from somewhere doesn't subject
something
to copyright or licence requirements. There may be patent
and
non-disclosure issues, but neither are applicable here.

> Also, I would find it very difficult, if not
impossible, to write an
> ebuild that is even slightly complex without using the
eclasses, at
> all. Sure, it is *possible* that someone is capable of
writing an
> ebuild entirely from scratch, but the likelihood is
pretty much
> nonexistent.

As I understand it, merely using an eclass doesn't force
GPL-2 on an
ebuild because there's no linkage involved.

> We could just end this really quickly and require all
ebuilds
> submitted be done under GPLv2.

Sure, but what about third party ebuilds? Claiming that all
ebuilds are
derived work of a Gentoo-copyrighted ebuild effectively
requires all
ebuilds that don't have Gentoo copyright to include a
statement like:

# Based upon skel.ebuild, which is Copyright 1999-2007
Gentoo Foundation

There are quite a few things out there that do not currently
comply with
this requirement. If the Foundation truly believes that all
ebuilds are
derived works, they should issue some kind of statement
saying so.

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh

CIARAN MCCREESH KIRJOITTI:
> 
> AS I UNDERSTAND IT, MERELY USING AN ECLASS DOESN'T
FORCE GPL-2 ON AN
> EBUILD BECAUSE THERE'S NO LINKAGE INVOLVED.
> 

THIS ARGUMENT WOULD MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO WRITE APPS USING
GPL-2 PYTHON
LIBRARIES IN !GPL-2 LICENSES SO I DON'T THINK IT GOES THAT
WAY BUT I AM
NO LAWYER AS SAID BEFORE.

REGARDS,
PETTERI