[Gllug] Hypothetical GPL question

Paul Sheer psheer at icon.co.za
Tue Oct 9 13:32:22 UTC 2001


> [...]
> I'm not sure why someone would want to do this :-) but it raises the
> question of what *is* source code - does it have to easily
> human-readable? This would be a subjective definition anyway.
> [...]

>From the GPL:

  "The source code for a work means the preferred
   form of the work for making modifications to it."

There are millions of ways of violating any
agreement that are impossible to litigate against.

Another example is to run your C program through
an obfuscator. Most people's C is so bad that
one could easily claim you wrote it that way :-)

You could also distribute source by mail-order
only. Then take months to reply, and/or ship the
source on faulty magnetic tapes.

What about compiling it into assembly, then
un-compiling into some markup language language that
only you have the compiler for. You could make the
compiler difficult to get hold of.

If you want to violate the GPL, there are
certainly more subtle and cunning ways to do it!

best

-paul

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