The next step

[Frank Atanassow]

Simon Marlow wrote (on 28-05-01 17:48 +0100):
> 
> > On 2001-05-28T16:14:29+0100, Simon Marlow wrote:
> > > As I understand it, the situation is worse than that.  The mere
> > > existence of GPL code poses a threat to commercial software: if a
> > > programmer happens to read some GPL code and then goes on 
> > to use similar
> > > techniques in proprietary code, the owner of the 
> > proprietary code is in
> > > a legally difficult position.
> > 
> > Really?  I've assumed that GPL only deals with copyright, and
> > techniques one uses in code are matters of patents and trade secrets.
> 
> Sure, but if the code in the proprietary source ends up looking similar
> enough to the GPL code, it might be hard to prove that it wasn't a
> derived work.  This is a risk you just don't want to take if your
> business depends on keeping your sources non-free.

Not that I buy this latest doublethink [1], but some people might call that
poetic justice.

Some people might.

But not me. No, sir...

[1] <a href="http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=doublethink">doublethink</a>

--
Frank Atanassow, Information & Computing Sciences, Utrecht University
Padualaan 14, PO Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, Netherlands
Tel +31 (030) 253-3261 Fax +31 (030) 251-3791