[OT} How to un-GPL parts of a GPL'd module.

[Anton Vredegoor]

On Tue, 8 Oct 2002 09:03:44 -0400, "Steve Holden"
<sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote:

>"Anton Vredegoor" <anton at vredegoor.doge.nl> wrote in message
>news:anujeq$qdk$1 at news.hccnet.nl...
>
>> I guess I could e-mail the author for permission but if I would have
>> to wait for them to answer, it would slow my coding process down to a
>> snail's pace, and there's always the possibility of the author being
>> unwilling.
>>
>Indeed. Perhaps you should consider releasing your own code under the GPL
>rather than some other license. That way there's no problem incorporating
>GPL'd code.

That would solve the problem at the cost of passing on the problem to
the next coder. It's this kind of "chain letter like" property that I
want to adress.

<some stuff deleted for brevity>

>> I know a lot of people rely on writing sourcecode for a living but I
>> have been unemployed as a programmer for so long know that the concept
>> of owning sourcecode or getting payed for producing it is completely
>> alien to me. I think I'll be writing free sourcecode till I die just
>> hoping some pieces of my code will survive into eternity. If someone
>> has a problem with that, hire me.
>>
>Sort of like "send money or I'll shoot the dog"? Not a very promising
>aproach to potential employers. I would encourage you to contact the
>original author and see if you can't get permission to include the code
>under license terms acceptable to you. Otherwise you'll need a clean room
>implementation (which, if the algorithm is obvious, might be similar to the
>GPL'd code, but should be your own work rather than someone else's).
>

In case it's not clear, the chance of me finding an employer is
remote. Contacting the original author consumes time and the outcome
would probably not be good since I don't agree with the "pass the
problem to the next guy" property of the GPL. Since the dog metaphore
was brought up, I would like to add the comparison of having a GPL dog
using a specific tree for some known purpose and forbidding any other
dog to use it for that same purpose ...

Regards,

		Anton.