Re: Lilypond \include statements and the GPL

[Tim McNamara]

On Apr 2, 2013, at 8:53 AM, Janek Warchoł wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 3:47 PM, Joseph Rushton Wakeling
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On 03/29/2013 11:26 AM, Janek Warchoł wrote:
>>> An example came to my mind: imagine someone typesetting a score and
>>> using one (just one) function from OLLib.  Distributing whole OLLib
>>> together with the score just to have this one functionality would be
>>> inconvenient, so he'd like to actually paste this function from OLLib
>>> into his file.  Can he do this?  I think that such usage should be
>>> permitted (and not resulting in the final score being copylefted), as
>>> long as the function is clearly marked and attributed.
>> 
>> Point of clarification: this isn't about the "final score" in the sense of 
>> the
>> PDF output.  This is about what are his obligations if he chooses to 
>> distribute
>> the .ly source file of his score.
> 
> Yes, that's what i had in mind - "resulting final lilypond file".
> Sorry for being imprecise.

Let's say I distribute a .ly file with an \include statement.  Let's further 
say that the file subject to \include is copyrighted under the "normal" 
copyright (e.g., "copyright Bob Jones, all rights reserved").  Let's call it 
"Bob Jones.ly."

If I copy the Bob Jones file into my .ly file without permission, I have 
violated the copyright.  If I distribute the file containing "Bob Jones.ly" 
without permission, I have violated the copyright.

If I do not copy the actual file into my .ly file but only have the \include 
statement, I have not violated copyright.  It would be up to any subsequent 
user to obtain the copyrighted Bob Jones file to use with \include or to come 
up with a workaround.

Merely stating 

     \include "Bob Jones.ly" 

in my own .ly file does not violate copyright because it does not reproduce or 
distribute the "Bob Jones.ly" file itself.  IMHO copyright is only a problem if 
I copy the "Bob Jones.ly" file into my .ly file, in which case I would probably 
also not be using \include.