Re: MySQL Patch Mechanism

>>>>> "Kelly" == Kelly Anderson <Anderson> writes:

Dunno about the process as such but

    Kelly> If it's a bug fix, haven't they benefited from the bug
    Kelly> being reported?

Yes.

    Kelly> Isn't what they are doing a "derivative work" of the bug
    Kelly> report itself?

No.  Copyright protects the form of expression, not the content.  If
there was a patch in the bug report and they apply the patch, it is a
derivative.  If the bug report explains the correct algorithm by
providing an equation, it is not a derivative to implement that
equation in C.

This is pretty basic stuff; there are discussions on it at the GNU
website (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy is one place to start), and at
the Open Source Initiative site (http://www.opensource.org/ IIRC), and
probably at www.debian.org, among others.


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