[Haskell-cafe] Why Not Haskell? (sidenote on licensing)

Udo Stenzel u.stenzel at web.de
Mon Aug 7 11:25:10 EDT 2006


Matthias Fischmann wrote:
> And it's really not as easy to control as you suggest: If you ever
> take in a single patch under the GPL,

This kind of thing doesn't happen by accident.  Patches don't magically
creep into your code, you have to apply them deliberately and you should
always know whether you are allowed to do so.  Applying a BSD-licensed
patch and neglecting to mention the author may get you into exactly as
much trouble.


> or even implement a new feature
> in an obvious way that has been implemented by somebody else under the
> GPL, you are in trouble.

Bullshit again, for the GPL applies to code, not to ideas.  Unless you
believe that copyright law does indeed apply to ideas, *and* that a
GPL-developer will come after you for reimplementing (not copying) his
work, you have nothing to fear unless you outright steal code.

May I humbly suggest some reading, like the text of the GPL itself and
then something basic about copyright law?  


> AFAIR this happened to SSH.com with the
> bigint code in ssh-v1.3

SSH included GMP, which was licensed under the GPL.  Nothing "happened"
there, only the OpenSSH folks disliked the license and reimplemented
GMP.


Udo.
-- 
"The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man."
	-- Richard Feynman
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