From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: copyright issues and derivative work (the case of matlab-mode) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:31:43 -0500 Message-ID: References: <87y25eq1o6.fsf@mat.ucm.es> <83r1b6om8i.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="17352"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: oub@mat.ucm.es, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 24 05:32:36 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1mpjxS-0004Id-8e for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 24 Nov 2021 05:32:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:58016 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mpjxR-0000tO-4F for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:32:33 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:38602) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mpjwd-00009b-Dr for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:31:43 -0500 Original-Received: from [2001:470:142:3::e] (port=45384 helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mpjwd-0000Uh-5E; Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:31:43 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=Date:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: mime-version; bh=xawbFQfwpTDdb2ZBCJJGHGMc1dbmY4MA/vg5l5YFs9A=; b=pWVA4QoVs7ON hRNIpPPF3pRwOGlGmr+wxOIyE5CRAHo6i0aiBDYSpc51YSacfx/w+XU4C3HTiPt2WeD9YBqiHsVyY FO9GUdN+htnkKcu+3+jWdJpOb1yFsBRhQw/ei4zciO8vBkmFLvF3CwYRvvdWpBBgOdnChTA1C8aSr Cmwf+7GS+lipNqUZVFGAu6og0apAMwI6xyyNf5THCJRV0TjxIYCQ4ZCtu4RizOSTyAr0uCCMvppQo uHcaRzxjGkV9AUgInrV2SFRchXBL0J0yKDt9n+XAWfoq8RvJ8hhWlUKoBkzCjLIya6yuom42uLsE+ sAL/+2twTbLV7AjUXO4QFg==; Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mpjwd-00061g-22; Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:31:43 -0500 In-Reply-To: <83r1b6om8i.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Tue, 23 Nov 2021 18:44:29 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:279979 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > > 3. Patches, that contain more than 15 lines, which according to > > https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Legally-Significant.html > > is legally relevant. However the current HEAD (tip) state of the > > repository contains less than 15 lines or even no line at all. > > Now there are two possibilities. > > > > a. The orginal patch is no longer relevant, and therefore no action is needed. > > That is what common sense would tell me. > > > > b. Although the code is not present now, it was present in some > > commit in the past, therefore the rest of the commits is > > derivative work. It isn't quite that simple and rigid. The question that needs to be answered is: is a substantial part of the current code more or less a rewriting of the original patch? If so, then that part is a derivative of the original patch. The FSF can can ask a lawyer about the specific case, if that's necessary. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)