From: Evgeniy Ivanov Subject: Re: Using parts of ext2_fs.h in BSD licensed code Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:34:14 +0300 Message-ID: References: <20100315182338.GG4484@thunk.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org To: tytso@mit.edu Return-path: Received: from mail-fx0-f219.google.com ([209.85.220.219]:47851 "EHLO mail-fx0-f219.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S937841Ab0CPMeR convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:34:17 -0400 Received: by fxm19 with SMTP id 19so4193254fxm.21 for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:34:14 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20100315182338.GG4484@thunk.org> Sender: linux-ext4-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 9:23 PM, wrote: > On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 08:26:16PM +0300, Evgeniy Ivanov wrote: >> Just found, that recently FreeBSD got this: >> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/fs/ext2fs/ext2fs.h >> It looks like I can easily include it to the BSD-licensed project an= d >> no GPL violation. But I dunno how did they wrote ext2fs.h, since it >> still must be based on ext2_fs.h > > Constants and code points aren't subject to copyright, so they don't > have ask any question. =A0The places where things start to get dicy i= s > with inline function and CPP macros, especially when the code starts > become non-trivial. =A0i.e., there's only one way to do "(foo & MASK)= !=3D > 0", so that's probably not subject to copyright. =A0A complicated 20 > line function, even if it's in a header file, is probably going to be > subject to copyright. =A0What is and isn't a matter of copyright is > something you'd have to get a lawyer to answer for you. > > You can of couse also request permission, but that can get tricky, > especially if the person who originally wrote it can't easily be > tracked down (I haven't talked or e-mailed with Remy in years), or if > it was done by someone while being paid by their employer, in which > case some corporate lawyers might have to be dragged in to give > permission. > > Fortunately I don't think there's much in the way of complicated code > in the header files that you would have to deal with. > Thanks a lot for your answer. --=20 Evgeniy Ivanov -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" i= n the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html