From: David Lee Lambert <lamber45@EGR.msu.edu>
Subject: Re: Licensing issues
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 00:15:23 -0400

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Matthew Becker wrote:

> With regard to the licensing issues and how to deal with other's source
> code, can someone create a recap summary of the discussions that have been
> going on?  This extra documentation (to be included in the distribution)
> would help those of us who are looking at either including modified code, or
> including patches to existing code bases.

This is the way it seems to me:

1.  Don't use GPL code (unless you want to maintain your own seperate GPL
release).

2.  Don't use Open-Group or other code with a restrictive license.

3.  BSD or public domain code is OK.

4.  Definitions in header files are,  by their very nature,  pretty much
uncopyrightable;   a patent might apply to these.  However,  there may be
a compilation copyright on the group.  Refrain from copying over large
parts of header files verbatim.

5.  Documentation is encyclopedic prose;  don't copy it:  instead,
paraphrase or quote it,  and try to make it better.  As long as you do
that,  you're OK.

6.  Try doing stuff differently whenever possible.

7.  Use reverse-engineering and disassembly only as a last resort;  if
possible,  have one person disassemble something (or read a book in which
this has been done) and another person rewrite it.

8.  Linking with LGPL or MozPL or proprietary libraries is probably OK,
but check with Alexandre first.  It's also a good idea to allow those
functions to be bypassed easily if they're not available.


I hope this is a good summary of the rules.  Any disagreement?

-- 
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David Lee Lambert -- Just another perl hacker
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