[Development] Qt 4.8.6 Release Plans

Thiago Macieira thiago.macieira at intel.com
Mon Nov 4 17:02:47 CET 2013


On segunda-feira, 4 de novembro de 2013 11:46:35, Oswald Buddenhagen wrote:
> that's nonsense. any simple patch is not subject to copyright (though
> it's still good tone to credit the investigator). and anything complex
> enough is likely to produce a slightly different patch anyway, even
> after seeing the other patch. that's what copyright is about in the
> first place: protecting *creative* works.

The problem is that, once you've read their work, if you write the same 
solution you're likely to be influenced by the original. Therefore, it's not a 
new creative work (which copyright does allow), but a derivative work, a copy. 
Billion-dollar lawsuits have been filed for less.

So one person alone cannot do it. Two can:

- one person reads the patch and *describes* the solution to the other
- the other person writes the new patch without looking at the code of the 
  first

This is called clean-room reimplementation. It's permitted: copyright only 
covers the creative work (the implementation), not the idea.

And it's a lot of overhead!

Unless the original author specifically and explicitly says "this is in the 
public domain".

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center
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