3 ms·

But there has to be a threshold. If a GPL project contains a function which takes two variables and returns x+y, and I have functionally identical code in a pro

But there has to be a threshold. If a GPL project contains a function which takes two variables and returns x+y, and I have functionally identical code in a project I made with an incompatible license, it is obviously absurd to sue me.

ranger_danger 2y ago
You're right, there is. The threshold is whatever a court decides is "substantial similarity" in that particular case. But there's no way to know that ahead of time as the interpretation/decision is subjective.
giamma 2y ago
You are right but there is no legally defined threshold so it's subjective. As a matter of fact, the Eclipse Foundation requires every contributor to declare that every piece of code is their own original creation and is not a copy/paste from other projects, with the exception possibly of other Eclipse Foundation or Apache Foundation projects because their respective licenses allow that. Even code snippets from StackOverflow are formally forbidden. If I am not mistaken, in the Oracle-Google trial over Java on Android, at the end Google re-implementation of Java API on Android was considered fair-use, because Google kept the original "signatures" of the Java SDK API and rewrote most of the implementation with the exception of copying "0.4% of the total Java source code and was minimal" [1] However the trial came to this conclusion after several iterations in court. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....