Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 20 Nov 2002 00:59:26 -0200 (BRST) | From | Rik van Riel <> | Subject | Re: spinlocks, the GPL, and binary-only modules |
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On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Josh Myer wrote: > On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Rik van Riel wrote: > > On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote: > > > But who knows if #include'd code constitutes a derived work :( > > > > Only if the #included snippets of code are large enough to be > > protected by copyright, which might be true of the stuff in > > mm_inline.h and of some of the semaphore code, but probably > > isn't true of the spinlock code.
> Since you're functionally using it, and it's not a protected use > (Satire, etc, though some would argue that the nvidia drivers are a > mockery...), I would tend to think Fair Use wouldn't apply in this case. > Are there any IP Lawyers in the house? > > The only analogy i can think of is a remix of songs, and several people > have gotten into wonderfully large lawsuits over that.
You can copyright songs, but not individual musical notes.
Likewise, snippets of code aren't copyrightable if they're below a certain "triviality size".
> > Even if the code #included is large enough to be protected by > > copyright I don't know if the code including it would be considered > > a derived work. Many questions remaining... > > This basically all falls upon the shoulders of whoever wrote the spinlock > code on whatever platform you're compiling for...
No, this is an issue of legislation and case law. Some copyright holders (*eyes hollywood*) would like to be able to decide such things for themselves, but this isn't something copyright holders can decide...
regards,
Rik -- Bravely reimplemented by the knights who say "NIH". http://www.surriel.com/ http://guru.conectiva.com/ Current spamtrap: <a href=mailto:"october@surriel.com">october@surriel.com</a>
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