Mark Mielke <m...@mark.mielke.cc> writes: > Wouldn't contributing a patch to be read by the person who will be > solving the problem, but without transferring of rights, introduce > risk or liability for the FSF and GCC? > > I thought "clean room implementation" implies not seeing how somebody > else did it first, as the "clean" part is tainted after somebody > examines the patch?
Clean room implementation techniques are not required to avoid copyright violations. Copyright only covers the expression of an idea; it does not cover the idea itself. Expressing the same idea in different code is not a copyright violation. Even independent identical expressions are not copyright violations if they are truly independent. And if there is only one possible way to express an idea, then copyright does not apply at all, as there is no creative aspect to the work. Ian
