Re: svn commit: r1140482 - /subversion/branches/svn-bisect/BRANCH-README

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:16 AM, Daniel Shahaf <d.s_at_daniel.shahaf.name> wrote:
> [ Haven't read the whole thread yet, quick response only to this sentence ]
>
> Peter Samuelson wrote on Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:11:45 -0500:
>> This is why you should read the existing third-party implementations.
>
> I believe some third-party implementations are GPL'd --- meaning that we
> can't borrow code from them --- so one should be careful in what parts
> of what implementations one chooses to read.

We certainly can't copy / paste code, but borrowing algorithms,
techniques, patterns or ideas is perfectly valid. GPL governs
copyright of the code, not the ideas contained therein. (For
instance, reimplementing something from a GPL'd Python program to a
ALv2'd C program would be perfectly valid.)

-Hyrum

PS - IANAL and could be way off base here. If I am, and even
*reading* GPL code somehow makes you ineligible to contribute to
ALv2-licensed code, then the GPL is even goofier than I thought.
Received on 2011-06-28 17:25:04 CEST