IANAL, but I am pretty sure you are right. However, I think there
is an issue
on "how simple is simple?". It seems common to talk about 10 lines
of code
are not infringements, but then noone give any hint of an upper
limit. I
think it would be good if it could be documented somehow, to get a
better
view.
Well, you can't really say for sure how many lines constitutes an
original work. Sometimes even long strips of code could be deemed
non-copyrightable, due to e.g. heavy use of cut-n-paste, or e.g. a
straightforward implementation of a well-known algorithm. And
sometimes, a short piece of code, being brilliant and non-obvious
might be considered an original body of work.
This is a thorny subject and the conventions change from country to
country. Finland has a copyright board for issuing recommendations
on a case-by-case on whether something is an original enough body of
work or not. Most often they are actually not.
In addition, since many, many patches have over the years been
changed, it's very difficult to say whether the original body of work
still exists and how much of it still exists. These would need to be
resolved case-by-case.
Here's the crappy thing: I know Apache wants to have existing
communities. But you can't have an existing community without some
existing work. And if Apache is very stingy on the requirements that
every single small patch author needs to have a CLA on file, then
it's going to be really difficult - in certain cases even impossible
- to get these works into Apache :-(.
So, any advice on this matter?
/Janne
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