Doubt regarding Plagiarism and copyright infringement

Hello everyone,

         I have a query regarding the subject of the mail. I have seen
some free code available for Microcontroller , which is written in
VHDL. It is licensed with The GNU Lesser General Public License. Now, i
want to modify a little of this code and then completely change to
another Programming language.

       When it is completely changed, can i have my own copyrights or
do i get only the GNU Lesser general Public License. And then can i
sell this new product under my copyrights or do i need to give it for
free.

        Thanking you all in advance and eagerly waiting for your
responses.

Regards,
J.Anil Kumar.

anil wrote:

>          I have a query regarding the subject of the mail. I have seen
> some free code available for Microcontroller , which is written in
> VHDL. It is licensed with The GNU Lesser General Public License. Now, i
> want to modify a little of this code and then completely change to
> another Programming language.
>
>        When it is completely changed, can i have my own copyrights or
> do i get only the GNU Lesser general Public License. And then can i
> sell this new product under my copyrights or do i need to give it for
> free.

<IANAL>

My reading of http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html says "No".

"2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Library or any portion of
it, thus forming a work based on the Library, and copy and distribute
such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided
that you also meet all of these conditions:

    a) The modified work must itself be a software library.
    b) You must cause the files modified to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
    c) You must cause the whole of the work to be licensed at no charge
to all third parties under the terms of this License."

To me, you're just "modifying" the code and item 2c) above says that
any modifications must come under the lesser licence and be licensed at
no charge.

In general, what you need to do is partition the "value added" work
you're doing or going to be doing from the value that is gained by the
LGPLed work. That is the intent of the Lesser license: it allows such
partitioning.

<\IANAL>

Ciao,

Peter K.

anil wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
>          I have a query regarding the subject of the mail. I have seen
> some free code available for Microcontroller , which is written in
> VHDL. It is licensed with The GNU Lesser General Public License. Now, i
> want to modify a little of this code and then completely change to
> another Programming language.
> 
>        When it is completely changed, can i have my own copyrights or
> do i get only the GNU Lesser general Public License. And then can i
> sell this new product under my copyrights or do i need to give it for
> free.
> 
>         Thanking you all in advance and eagerly waiting for your
> responses.

Check at http://www.fsf.org/licensing

Jerry
-- 
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

Hello Peter,

              Nice to see your reply. I also had the feeling after
reading the license. But my case is that, I will be changing the
complete code from one language to another different language.
therefore, can i call this new code as my own with my own copyrights.

Regards,
J.Anil Kumar.

anil wrote:
> Hello Peter,
> 
>               Nice to see your reply. I also had the feeling after
> reading the license. But my case is that, I will be changing the
> complete code from one language to another different language.
> therefore, can i call this new code as my own with my own copyrights.

I don't think changing the programming language has anything to
do with it -- the work is still a derivative work  (if it was that
different, then you wouldn't have bothered to even look at the
other code).

I'm no expert in these legal issues, but the way I interpret it,
programming languages are irrelevant;  if your work *derives* from
the other one, then the licensing restrictions apply.

Carlos
--

Carlos Moreno wrote:

> I'm no expert in these legal issues, but the way I interpret it,
> programming languages are irrelevant;  if your work *derives* from
> the other one, then the licensing restrictions apply.

<IANAL>
I have to agree.
</IANAL>

Ciao,

Peter K.

You see, copyright cannot legally protect software from guys like you.
Only patents can...
So, technically speaking, if there is no patent on the underlying
functionality,
you can escape copyright by rewriting the whole thing in a different
language
and sell it as your own product.

As far as calling it your own software in this group, this is just
completely dishonest, don't you see it ?
Somebody took time and effort to come up with ideas and develop
software which you got for free.
You should give it away for free too, from moral perspective at
least...


anil wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
>          I have a query regarding the subject of the mail. I have seen
> some free code available for Microcontroller , which is written in
> VHDL. It is licensed with The GNU Lesser General Public License. Now, i
> want to modify a little of this code and then completely change to
> another Programming language.
>
>        When it is completely changed, can i have my own copyrights or
> do i get only the GNU Lesser general Public License. And then can i
> sell this new product under my copyrights or do i need to give it for
> free.
>
>         Thanking you all in advance and eagerly waiting for your
> responses.
> 
> Regards,
> J.Anil Kumar.

Nameless--

>You see, copyright cannot legally protect software from guys like you.

What about protecting the world from cowards like you who cant name
themselves? 

>So, technically speaking, if there is no patent on the underlying
>functionality, 
>you can escape copyright by rewriting the whole thing in a different
>language
>and sell it as your own product.

Thanks. You seem to have great experience on this.Do it for a living, if
any?

>As far as calling it your own software in this group, this is just
>completely dishonest, don't you see it ?

Anil was honest enough to name himself and innocent enough to ask for a
clarification. And you -dumb Ass-hole- are neither.

>Somebody took time and effort to come up with ideas and develop
>software which you got for free.
>You should give it away for free too, from moral perspective at
>least...

Yeah, thats what he would probably end up doing post this thread. Now you
can climb down from your moral high horse, you moron.

--Bhooshan

Hello Booshan,

                      don't write like that about the person who had
not written his name. The issue is not about cowardness or innocense
and things. I just wanted to know, what happens for my effort.

                     it seems that, if i rewrite the code, then i need
to give it for free. it seems better to understand what the code and
structure is and implement the code using my own ideas with some help
from else where. With this i can have my own copyrights for my effort.

Regards,
J.Anil Kumar.

bhooshaniyer wrote:
> Nameless--
>
> >You see, copyright cannot legally protect software from guys like you.
>
> What about protecting the world from cowards like you who cant name
> themselves?
>
> >So, technically speaking, if there is no patent on the underlying
> >functionality,
> >you can escape copyright by rewriting the whole thing in a different
> >language
> >and sell it as your own product.
>
> Thanks. You seem to have great experience on this.Do it for a living, if
> any?
>
> >As far as calling it your own software in this group, this is just
> >completely dishonest, don't you see it ?
>
> Anil was honest enough to name himself and innocent enough to ask for a
> clarification. And you -dumb Ass-hole- are neither.
>
> >Somebody took time and effort to come up with ideas and develop
> >software which you got for free.
> >You should give it away for free too, from moral perspective at
> >least...
>
> Yeah, thats what he would probably end up doing post this thread. Now you
> can climb down from your moral high horse, you moron.
> 
> --Bhooshan

Poor little Bhooshan,

You may not like patents and patent holders, as I can read from your
post, but this is your problem, not mine...

As for the style of your post...
A long time ago in some other life I had to teach math to a class of
mentally retarded and overall useless high-school dropouts.
Most of them were OK and actually tried to learn something, but some of
them were noisy and disrespectful little bastards. Verbal interaction
didn't work with them so I had to resort to physical interaction on
some occasions... you know, literally kick them in the butt...

I don't do this type of thing nowadays, not in my present environment
at least.
But sometimes I feel a strong urge to make a personal exception, like
in your case...