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> Looking at GPL code doesn't poison your mind forever. If you purposely go through the source code of a project to get inspiration and afterwards you are so i
by rewmie 3y ago
> Looking at GPL code doesn't poison your mind forever.
If you purposely go through the source code of a project to get inspiration and afterwards you are so inspired that you end up implementing the same thing in your code, you're literally reusing the code. If the project that inspired you so much does not grant you the right to reuse the code in the way you are reusing it, you're violating the licensing terms.
"Clean room implementation" does not mean "I may or may not have copy/pasted the code". It literally means replicating a design without infringing copyright related to the work you're replicating. Directly accessing the code and lift the good parts in different degrees of verbatim-ness is the textbook definition of copyright violation.
- morelisp 3y agoClean room reimplementation is a sufficient but not necessary way to avoid copyright violations. If what you're proposing was true no corporate counsel would ever suggest hiring someone who had worked at a different company.
- loeg 3y agoI think it's very clear that you cannot literally copy and paste portions of the GPL code. No one was suggesting otherwise. I wrote: > Of course, you cannot directly copy GPL code and call it MIT. I also wrote: > And you arguably cannot have GPL code open in one window and write your version in a separate window. Alluding to the idea that something less literal than copying and pasting might still be too much like copying. Your comment reads like you are disagreeing with me, but I think it's mostly just not responsive to mine.