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Re: [PATCH] Fix warning in fs/xfs.c


From: Cesare Leonardi
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Fix warning in fs/xfs.c
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:40:07 +0200
User-agent: Mozilla-Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080509)

Marco Gerards wrote:
Pavel Roskin <address@hidden> writes:

On Thu, 2008-07-03 at 20:21 +0200, Marco Gerards wrote:
Pavel Roskin <address@hidden> writes:

ChangeLog:
        * fs/xfs.c (struct grub_xfs_dir_header): Use names similar to
        those in Linux XFS code.  Provide a way to access 64-bit parent
        inode.
        (grub_xfs_iterate_dir): Use the new names.  Avoid reading past
        the end of struct grub_xfs_dir_header.
*please* do not look at Linux code or whatever *and* contribute to
 GRUB.  It might cause copyright troubles I will have to deal with :-/
I just tried to make names similar without copying any code.  But it's a
useful reminder.

What I meant is that even *looking* at code might cause problems.
People can claim you have stolen their ideas.  That would essentially
mean the same as copying code.  I just want to avoid such problems at
beforehand.

But one of the best aspect of the free software is exactly that you could look inside other's code and reuse it and its ideas. Would be a problem if you look the source of a program covered by NDA, or by some other closed license, but with Linux kernel?? If you couldn't look inside a GPL2 project then it would be a loss of the free software and the GPL3. And you have to reinvent something that others has already done well...

Furthermore, AFAIK, the problem of protecting code implementation is covered by copyright, while protecting ideas is a patent job. Now, Linux is GPL2 and it's not encumbered by patents, so what's the problem?

Regards.

Cesare.




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