Re: PathSearchAndQualify patch not applied?

IANAL, but this is my understanding:

Nadav Frum wrote:
> The ultimate goal for Cedega is full compatibility with Windows (as
> far as games are concerned).  Therefore, if there is a compatibility
> problem with the code no one should be able to stop TG from fixing it
> by exercising copyrights.

That sounds all well and good, but it's *not* how I understand copyright
law to work (at least in the U.S.).

Copyright means you have the right to decide who is allowed to make
copies of your work, and under what circumstances.  If a person does not
want TG to make copies of that person's work (their patch) when
distributing Cedega, then that is that person's right, and TG cannot use
their patch.

> If someone advertises a brilliant patch or idea which can benefit
> Cedega, I believe TG can use it without copyright problems since you
> cannot be forced to use an inferior solution in your code.

Then you believe incorrectly -- and your "since" clause is the issue.
In U.S. copyright law, there is no such provision, and I highly doubt
that there is one in any other country's copyright law either.  You
*can* be forced to use an inferior solution, if you can't come up with
an independent implementation that's not considered a derivative work.
(There are also possible patents on algorithms to be worried about in
some cases, though probably not here.)

I think the reason TG wants X11 licensed patches is because of the many
different licenses that apply to different parts of the Cedega CVS tree.
Without an X11 license on the patch, it probably can't legally be used
in connection with all of those licenses (and without any license at
all, it can't be used at all unless the copyright on the patch is
assigned to TG).