a python license problem?

[Terry Reedy]

On 9/11/2012 12:03 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
> Jayden <jayden.shui at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Python is under GPL compatible. If I develop a python code
>
> If you write new code, without deriving your work from the code of
> Python itself, then the license of the Python code cannot affect what
> you many do with what you wrote – because the copyright on Python does
> not affect works not derived from it.
>
> Despite the wishes of copyright maximalists (and the PSF are not
> copyright maximalists, to my knowledge), there are still limits to the
> scope of copyright.

If by 'copyright maximalists' you mean the authors of translation 
programs that claim copyright to translations, then they are really 
'copyright grabbers' in that they are denying copyright to original 
authors of the codes translated.

The usual basis for the grab is that the translated code must run with a 
runtime component from the translator. The runtime may or may not be 
physically bundled with the translated code, just as Python code can run 
with either a separately installed python or a bundled python, as in 
freeze or py2exe. The PSF explicitly says that distribution of such 
bundles is allowed for CPython as long as one summarized what one is 
doing. (See terms 2 and 3.)

>> If python is under GPL, is the answer different? Thanks a lot!!
>
> Python is not under GPL. But unless you are deriving a work from Python
> and distributing the result, that doesn't alter the answer.

To be really clear, the 'Python license' is the license for the Python 
x.y.z software and documentation distributed by the Python Software 
Foundation. Other implementations have their own copyright and licenses. 
Code is copyrighted and licensed by the author or assignee.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy