23 ms·
Is it really a clean-room implementation (in the GPL-enforcement sense) if you're looking at the git internal documentation?
by ngoldbaum 11y ago
Is it really a clean-room implementation (in the GPL-enforcement sense) if you're looking at the git internal documentation?
- eru 11y agoInteresting legal question. I'd bet on the `yes' side, but don't have any arguments.
- belorn 11y agoI doubt it. A clean-room implementation is intended to demonstrate to a court that no knowledge of the copyrighted material was available to the implementers during the creation of the work. Any similarities to the "original" work must then be caused by functional constraints resulting from compatibility requirements, thus free from creative elements (not protected by copyright). If the internal documentation include any creative elements which are reflected by the git implementation, then the clean-room would be contaminated.