Author: KarinsDad
Date: 16:29:50 02/18/99
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On February 18, 1999 at 18:34:42, William H Rogers wrote: >I work for a major software company in Fremont, Ca. and it has been common >knoledge that the 10% rule is valid, however, I am not able to find the legal >documents at this time. I searched the net. I did find the following >http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/cines/circ14 and > /faq.html#49 >They state that minor modifications to a persons program do not constitute a new >work and are illegal to use without the original authors permission. >I am sure the 10% rule is out there somewhere, after all Microsoft, Lotus, and >all the others would not last long without it. >Bill Strange. Microsoft lost a lawsuit some time back to Digital since Cutler took some of the VMS code and used it (modified or not) in NT. There is no way that VMS and NT are anywhere near 90% similar (maybe 5%), so it would seem that you must change more than 10% of the code to not get hit in a court of law (and I'm positive that Microsoft has some of the best lawyers around). Maybe the rule is 10% the same is ok, but 10% different seems majorly incorrect. Or maybe it is on a per module or per procedure basis (you must change at least 10% of each procedure?). KarinsDad
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