Legal/Permission Question

[Dave]

Dan wrote:
> David B. Held Wrote:
>> Generally, the best way to implement something that someone else has 
>> written is to use a "clean room" technique where you isolate yourself 
>> from any possible external influences, as Walter and others have pointed 
>> out.  Even if you are clever enough to change or obfuscate all the 
>> identifiers, people are hard at working creating similarity programs 
>> that detect likeness without any exact matches.
>>
>> On the one hand, you probably don't have to worry about Walter hunting 
>> you down with lawyers, because he knows you can't squeeze blood from a 
>> turnip.  On the other, if your library becomes as successful as you hope 
>> it does and DMDScript gets bought out by a SCO-like player, then you 
>> have a world of hurt coming your way.
>>
>> Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design and keep 
>> in mind that while the clean room technique may be a defense against 
>> copyright infringement, it is not a defense against patents (not sure if 
>> Walter has any patents on any D stuff, or if anyone does, but this seems 
>> like the smaller risk for you).  The fact that you are already part of 
>> the D community may strongly imply that you are already tainted.
>>

Hmmm - I'd have to question that last line. I mean geesh... Besides, what really is the "D 
community". It'd be hard to prove in court what that in itself means, with public NG's and all ;)

>> Good luck.
>>
>> Dave
> 
> Walter, if I may ask, examining Walnut 1.9 from:
> http://dsource.org/projects/browse/branches/1.9/source/
> 
> Is the code that I've currently written in any way derived from your works?  While, as people here have suggested, you probably won't come after me for it, your explicit agreement that it isn't so far would probably hold me not liable for that code.
> 
> Granted that, I guess I'm not allowed to program ever again, because I've read source code for practically everything - Ogre3D, various games, scripting engines, compilers, OS's, tools, algorithms and data structures.. I'm just a walking liability.
> 
> I'll miss you all so much.  *sniffle*
> 
> It's a damned good thing this turnip is dry.  : )