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Re: Integration of gettext in Perl


From: Paul Jarc
Subject: Re: Integration of gettext in Perl
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 14:33:56 -0400
User-agent: Gnus/5.090007 (Oort Gnus v0.07) Emacs/21.2 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

address@hidden (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) wrote:
> If the *total effect* of a bunch of people's actions is to break the
> law, then anyone who does their piece in the expectation or intention
> that the whole thing will happen, is responsible for the breach of
> law.  This is true *even if* that person's act would not be illegal by
> itself.

Is it illegal for me to make private modifications to, say, Emacs and
not publish them at all?

Is it illegal for me to describe my modifications to someone else?

Is it illegal for me to describe my modifications to them in
sufficient detail that they are able to reproduce them?

Is it illegal for me to express that description in the form of source
or object code without licensing my own code under the GPL?

It seems to me that you would answer "no" to the first question and
"yes" to the last; I'm just trying to find the boundary.

> This is essential in the enforcement of the GPL.  If this weren't
> true, then a malicious person could add a non-copylefted feature to
> any GPL'd program by just splitting the GPL'd program into little
> pieces.

Those pieces would still be GPLed; I don't see how that would make
circumvention any easier.


paul



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