Thanks a lot! you can't find a lawyer anywhere when you need it! :-) I'm joking, of course...
Given that I don't have Delphi, suppose that company X ask me to make a software for them. I might give them the software, with full source code and a GPL licence note every here and there, and ask money for the _design_ of the software, instead of the software itself. How does it sound to you and eventual hidden lawyer "listening" to us ? thanks for your job, really! If I were even a little bit good at programming (serious programming and not just having a computer do what I need), I would be the perfect clean room programmer....never had any sort of delphi and never read any source at all ! cheers, Roberto 2008/1/16, Michael Van Canneyt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Roberto Padovani wrote: > > > I've been following this topic from the beginning and I took the time > > to read the (questionable) blog from the ex-CG developer. > > > > I'm interested in it because aside my personal enjoyment, I started > > using freepascal+lazarus where I work in order to quickly solve some > > needs like data analysis, algorithms benchmarking before > > implementation, controlling our hardware from the pc, and so > > on...related to the hardware we design (I'm a hardware engineer). > > > > Well, what kind of implication should I expect if, for any reason, > > things turn to bad? > > Those implication suggested by the blogger are so serious that if I > > were trusting him, I would immediately erase all disks with my pascal > > stuff and buy new ones. > > Not too much implication, for you, normally: > > 1. If you have a licensed copy of Delphi, you can ignore it: > you are allowed to use this source code. > > (We do not have the right to distribute it, but that is our problem, > which we must solve, and which we are solving) > > 2. If you don't have a licensed copy, you can still use the GPLed version of > CLX which is freely downloadable from Sourceforge: it is the same code as > the Delphi code. It does mean that your application needs to be GPLed. > If you don't distribute them, this is not a problem at all... > > So the only case when you could have problems is when both the following > conditions are true: > a) you don't have a registered Delphi > b) you use FPC/Lazarus to create and distribute closed-source commercial > software. > > In this case, then the remedy is to wait for the next release which has > the clean-room code, and simply recompile your application. > It is also under the assumption that Codegear actually can prove that we > have been infringing on copyright. > > Things get more complicated even because Codegear is US based, and most FPC > development happens in Europe and south america: I don't know whether a US > copyright is enforceable here in europe. > > Note that this is my understanding of things, and in no way binding legal > advice, I am not a lawyer after all... :-) > > Michael. > _______________________________________________ > fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org > http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal > _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
