Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 09:40:45 -0800 From: "IT3 Stuart Blake Tener, USNR-R" <stuart@bh90210.net> Message-id: <000301c1c9ed$0b941210$9cd1aace@GLOBAL01> Subject: RE: [suse-sparc] Will there be a SuSE 8.0 for Sparc?
Mr. Owen:
I am not sure where you derive the idea that a derivative work
must be inclusive to source code, but you are entirely incorrect. A
derivative work (as defined by US case law, and the congressional record
concerning legislative intent) is defined to mean not just code which is
inclusive of a former source code, but that is completely reliant in its
current state on a different product for its functionality.
In other words, Postgress SQL is not a derivative work because
the bulk of its functionality would not need to be rewritten to move it
from Linux to BSD. However, since YAST in fact is a very specific piece
of software for controlling files within Linux this argument becomes
moot, and does not ply easily to the instant case.
I would please request that you tell me from where you get this
information that source code must be duplicated to be a derivative work?
I am curious how much time you have studied this issue? I know that I
have spent a fair amount of time researching in the past for a law
student, so I am not speaking from a position absent references.
Very Respectfully,
Stuart Blake Tener, IT3 (E-4), USNR-R, N3GWG
Beverly Hills, California
VTU 1904G (Volunteer Training Unit)
stuart@bh90210.net
west coast: (310)-358-0202 P.O. Box 16043, Beverly Hills, CA 90209-2043
east coast: (215)-338-6005 P.O. Box 45859, Philadelphia, PA 19149-5859
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JOIN THE US NAVY RESERVE, SERVE YOUR COUNTRY, AND BENEFIT FROM IT ALL.
Sunday, January 13, 2002 4:38 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Lamar Owen [mailto:lamar.owen@wgcr.org]
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 9:08 AM
To: suse-sparc@suse.com
Subject: Re: [suse-sparc] Will there be a SuSE 8.0 for Sparc?
On Sunday 10 March 2002 12:23 pm, IT3 Stuart Blake Tener, USNR-R wrote:
> Mr. Owen:
> The fact that RedHat does not support the SPARC is not the
> issue; the issue is that in general RedHat does not make such
commentary
> in an insulting way to folks. Telling them what do you expect? You did
> not pay anything. And I am on several RedHat lists.
Ask RedHat for free access to Red Hat Network. Nope, sorry. Yet SuSE is
offering the same service for free.
I have seen such commentary from Red Hat. And it was deserved in that
case.
> The issue with YAST is not whether it "could be made to work on
> BSD" but what does it do? In other words, in your example the
postgress
> is a product which has been somewhat tweaked to work under SuSE, and
YaST requires certain files in certain places. That is a given. But to
be a
derivative work YaST would have to physically include the source code to
the
work of which it is derivative.
> Secondly you are incorrectly presuming that I was referring to
> the specific fact that it is a derivative work of the kernel. Not what
I
> was saying. What I was saying is that it is a derivative work of and
is
> in fact tied to those software packages that are as a whole Linux,
many
> of which are licensed under the GPL, thus I would presume it is a
> derivative work of some several packages, but yet still, even
separately
> copyrightable, certainly not able to be licensed in the manner SuSE
> seems to wish to license it.
Hmmm.
To be considered a derivative work, again, actual code has to be used.
Ok,
let's be liberal about it and say that linking in a shared library
qualifies
(it may or may not depending upon license). /sbin/yast is linked to the
following libraries:
libncurses.so.5
libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3
libcrypt.so.1
libz.so.1
libc.so.6
libm.so.6
I leave it as an exercise to the reader to research the licensing of
those
libraries.
> that YAST can run on its own, if it is so closely tied to the location
> of all the configuration files in Linux? It cannot, unless it is
> completely rewritten.
Linux is the kernel, not the OS. As Richard Stallman and the GNU
project
that question.
By your reasoning no non-free product can be made to run on the Linux
kernel
at all. This is evidently mistaken, as many developers are doing this
all
the time.
> Anyway enough about all this, I was just trying to comment
> initially on the fact that the SuSE employees comment that what do you
> expect if you didn't pay was both out of the spirit of most Linux
> distributors, and was also a rather insulting thing to hear from a
> company making its money from the contributions of others whom have
not
> been paid whatsoever.
Depends on what getting paid means. Apparently the SPARC distribution
of
SuSE is a 'labor of love' by one or at most a small few people at SuSE.
The
SPARC distribution specifically does NOT include support from SuSE, as
you
can read for yourself.
As to contributions, SuSE's contributions back into the Linux kernel, as
well
as other projects, are significant.
> JOIN THE US NAVY RESERVE, SERVE YOUR COUNTRY, AND BENEFIT FROM IT ALL.
Totally off-topic, but I do want to comment on this. I applaud your
participation in the defense of your country (mine too, but not the
country
of everyone on this list). Many thanks for that sacrifice.
-- Lamar Owen WGCR Internet Radio 1 Peter 4:11-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-sparc-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-sparc-help@suse.com
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