Author: Frank Mueller
Date: 03:13:39 08/25/05
Go up one level in this thread
>>Nobody could prevent such illegal practices, but if they come to light, adequate >>measures could be legally enforced. The word "such" was a bit misleading in that context. > >I am not sure about that. I was not talking about cases where someone takes the >source code of Fruit and alters it slightly to make a new engine. I meant that >an author of an existing engine can look into the source of Fruit and implement >Fabien's ideas in his "own" engine. He could do that without copying a single >line of code. Is this illegal according to the GPL? I admit, protecting *mere ideas* is nearly impossible. But revealing and sharing ideas is fundamental part of open source system. Every programmer has the choice which path he will choose. There always will be people exploiting such liberal systems only for their own purposes. Compare it with other areas of life, for example misuse in welfare system or -- on the opposite -- misuse by top managers. But generally, free software is based on the hope that *on the whole* the advantages will outbalance the drawbacks. Frank
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.