[cc-licenses] derivatives and source

Francesco Poli invernomuto at paranoici.org
Sun Apr 8 06:36:43 EDT 2012


On Sat, 7 Apr 2012 12:29:17 +0200 Antoine Pitrou wrote:

> On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:23:18 -0400
> "P. J. McDermott" <pjm at nac.net> wrote:
> > 
> > My rule of thumb regarding computer programs is that whatever one edits
> > is what one should release.  For a program written in assembly, one
> > would release the assembly source code.  For a program written in C, one
> > would release the C source code, not assembly source generated by a
> > compiler.  And to comply with the GNU GPL when distributing a work that
> > is difficult to build and/or install, one could simply describe what
> > he/she has done while using it.
> > 
> > Though I agree that the line is much more fuzzy regarding other works, I
> > feel that a similar rule could be applied.  Whatever one edits – be it
> > an image source file, a generated PNG image, video project files, a
> > rendered video, etc. – is what one should release.
> 
> Indeed, and AFAIR the GPLv2 defines source code as “the preferred form
> for modification”. Which is a nice generic definition which can be
> adequately interpreted according to the field's best practices.

Agreed: the definition of source code proposed in the GNU GPL is
general and flexible enough to cover all the above-described examples
and more.

I think that this definition *is* the way to effectively codify a
source-availability requirement into a copyright license.


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