[Opensim-dev] Violating the GPL by looking (Re: bad analogies)

[David Wendt JR.]

About my comment about 'inevitable disclosure', it was a bad attempt to make an analogy. My impression was that there would be some sort of argument that might hold up in court that our code was GPL tainted because we had a chance to look at their code and copy it, violating the GPL's requirements that all code it covers must stay GPL. However, after reading comments on the mailing list and some self-reflection I've realized something interesting... you can't copy code from the Linden viewer into the server anyway! The Linden viewer is C++ and the OpenSIM codebase is C#. Not to mention, the only thing that would be of interest to our project in the Linden viewer would be network packet handlers. Plus, copyright covers implementations, not ideas. Dan Miller's final comment, however, is very true: There's no way to prove that we didn't look at the code, especially since the code download can be anonymous, routed through tor straight to a hidden truecrypt
 volume.

As for the whole "linden might have a patent" thing, that has nothing to do with any allegations of GPL taint. If Linden has a patent they can use against us, it harms us irregardless of GPL taint. The viewer is licensed GPLv2 anyway, which doesn't have any patent-grant language. I wouldn't expect Linden to actually sue over such patents, given that they are aiming for a completely open grid. Nevertheless we should be wary of any such patents and avoid them if at all possible.

----- Original Message ----
From: dan miller <danbmil99 at yahoo.com>
To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 3:18:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] Violating the GPL by looking (Re: Voice Module)


--- dan miller <danbmil99 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > What it boils down to, though?  This discussion is simply more fear,
> > uncertainty, and doubt thrown at the viability of the GPL for anything
> > at all.
> 
> Absolutely.  It's FUD, and FUD is causing self-censorship -- that's why
> this
> sticks in my craw.
> 
> > The only possible monkeywrench is patent infringement, but I don't
> > know if any patent filing has actually occurred on anything that
> > Linden's employees may have invented.  (I can't find any, but that
> > doesn't mean anything.)
> 
> That's exactly why a big-company attorney would give this sort of advice. 
> We can't know if there are any Linden patent filings out there, or what
> Linden's stance might be.  Therefore, the big companies who are interested
> in opensim (I have no doubt that an opinion from one of their overpaid
> hacks
> is the genesis of this 'rule') are taking an absurdly cautionary stance by
> insisting that no opensim programmers can ever be exposed to the SL viewer
> source.
> 
> What is patently ridiculous (ha!) about all this is, the problem could
> still
> exist if Linden released their viewer under a BSD license.  They could
> still
> have a patent; they could still claim 'residual information' or
> 'inevitable
> disclosure' with respect to programmers who confess to having read said
> code.    The reason GPL rears its ugly head is that it explicitly states
> that you can't let your patents restrict other's GPL rights.  Note however
> that letting some of these patent rights slip into a BSD project *does
> not*
> restrict anyone's right to use the GPL code, nor does it go afowl of GPL
> because there is no code copying!  (I shoulda been a lawyer..)
> 
> What makes it triply ridiculous is that a lawsuit could easily transpire
> anyway, with a claim that some programmer is lying about having read the
> code.  Inevitable Disclosure involves trade secrets and confidentiality
> agreements, where it is clear who had access and who didn't.  Having
> programmers (whose r/l identities we often don't even know) pledge on IRC
> or
> email that they never looked at code that is right out there for anyone to
> anonymously download, is very unlikely to hold up in a court case.
> 
> So the whole thing remains... just silly, IMSHO.
> 
> 

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