On Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003, at 02:16 US/Eastern, Thomas Bushnell, BSG
wrote:
NOR can you call the edited assembly the complete source.
I disagree there. Let me make it clear that I'm taking about making
major changes: so much so that the executable is substantially
different from the original.
Not change a few text strings. Not fix a few trivial bugs. Changes that
implement major new features, and touch a good deal of the generated
assembly code[0]. Changes extensive enough that a reasonable person
would no longer call the C code a "form" of the work, but a separate
work.
I don't think an interpretation of the GPL that says "I wrote this code
in C. Forever is C must it stay!" is correct.
If you
could, the GPL would be pointless.
How so? Because someone making a change to my program could make it in
a programming language I can't read? Yeah, I lose a lot of control over
what people do with my software when I decide to make it Free. Tough.
[0] On a file-by-file basis, as that seems to be the most granular you
can do with most compilers.
