Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>]

On 18 Mar 2005, at 20:43, Greg London wrote:

> Yes, but the crux of the matter is whether or not
> code-turned-into-silicon is a derived work or use.
> I'd view it as a cookie-recipe-turned-into-a-cookie,

It's a cookie recipe translated into French and recorded on CD.

Or the film of a book on video tape.

Is loading a program from CD into RAM derivation or use? Is the copy in 
memory covered by copyright? Howabout if it's Java bytecodes on a ROM 
and they are then JIT-compiled to native binary?

A compiled FGPA setup or the image for a ROM is a binary, shipping it 
is distribution. The medium is irrelevent. You could decompile it to 
the code (or the derived intermediate representaion).

> > I am very ignorant here, but I will point out that
> > hardware firewall/router manufacturers are feeling
> > the GPLs effects.
>
> the link is pretty vague, but it sounded like
> violations with embedded software, not the
> hardware.

Yes. Hardware is just a medium for software.

There's no vanishing point where someone can still be identifiably 
using code but the GPL doesn't apply.

If they don't want to get software gratis they can always pay to write 
their own. ;-)

- Rob.