Free the DMD backend

[Brad Anderson via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 31 May 2016 at 20:18:34 UTC, default0 wrote:
> I have no idea how licensing would work in that regard but 
> considering that DMDs backend is actively maintained and may 
> eventually even be ported to D, wouldn't it at some point 
> differ enough from Symantecs "original" backend to simply call 
> the DMD backend its own thing?
>
> Or are all the changes to the DMD backend simply changes to 
> Symantecs backend period?
>
> Then again even if that'd legally be fine after some point, 
> someone would have to make the judgement call and that seems 
> like a potentially large legal risk, so I guess even if it'd 
> work that way it would be an unrealistic step.

Copyright law's answer to the Ship of Theseus paradox is that 
it's the same ship (i.e. derivative works are still covered under 
the original copyright).