Hello all.. I have a problem on my GPL C++ application.
Some years ago I has been in contact with a research group that was developing a C++ multi-agent model of agricultural systems.
We worked together for a couple of years within an EU founder research project and I learned C++.
Ended that experience, I decided to develop from scratch a "clone" of such model. I didn't absolutelly copy any class, function, algorithm, line or whatsoever of such program, even because, as it has been developed for tens of years by different people in different contests, it was quite a "spaghetti code" and it wasn't very clear at all!
Rather, I started again with the very general concepts and I re-wrote from scratch the program, that ended being rather different from those original and I published it as GPL.
Now these people (Germans) sent me a threat letter and asked me to switch off my web-site.
Can anyone tell me if such request has any legal foundation ?? I will particular appreciate those giving me points to theyr favour..
Thanks, Antonello Lobianco - http://www.RegMAS.org http://www.regmas.org/
On 05-Feb-2008, no-reply wrote:
Ended that experience, I decided to develop from scratch a "clone" of such model. I didn't absolutelly copy any class, function, algorithm, line or whatsoever of such program, even because, as it has been developed for tens of years by different people in different contests, it was quite a "spaghetti code" and it wasn't very clear at all!
Did you have access to the code in order to develop your system?
If so, you will have a difficult time showing that your work is not a derivative of the earlier one. It is for this reason that the "clean room" URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design implementation approach is often taken. Did you take such an approach, and can you show evidence that this is the case?
Rather, I started again with the very general concepts and I re-wrote from scratch the program, that ended being rather different from those original and I published it as GPL.
This statement would seem to be the basis of what you're claiming. The issue would be whether you can show evidence that you implemented your work without infringing copyright in the earlier work.
Is copyright the only violation they are claiming? Ignore meaningless "intellectual property" claims and look for what specific law they claim you're violating.
Thanks, Antonello Lobianco
Please fix your "From" field in the header of your messages, so that it shows your name.
On mercoledì 6 febbraio 2008, Ben Finney wrote:
On 05-Feb-2008, no-reply wrote:
Ended that experience, I decided to develop from scratch a "clone" of such model. I didn't absolutelly copy any class, function, algorithm, line or whatsoever of such program, even because, as it has been developed for tens of years by different people in different contests, it was quite a "spaghetti code" and it wasn't very clear at all!
Did you have access to the code in order to develop your system?
Yes, I had
If so, you will have a difficult time showing that your work is not a derivative of the earlier one. It is for this reason that the "clean room" URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design implementation approach is often taken. Did you take such an approach, and can you show evidence that this is the case?
I completelly "forgot" the old code (of witch I didn't got really much understanding on many parts) and started my own one from scrath. My CVS can show how this has been started from nothing and little-little growing in dimensions and functionality, sometimes taking dead branches, and so on.
Rather, I started again with the very general concepts and I re-wrote from scratch the program, that ended being rather different from those original and I published it as GPL.
This statement would seem to be the basis of what you're claiming. The issue would be whether you can show evidence that you implemented your work without infringing copyright in the earlier work.
I ran "CodeMatch" from SAFE (http://www.safe-corp.biz/) and got no matching, exept for the initial #ifndef, #define, #include [...] sequence. The results are here: http://regmas.org/codeMatch/
Is copyright the only violation they are claiming? Ignore meaningless "intellectual property" claims and look for what specific law they claim you're violating.
For now they only speak about "intellectual property rights", they never cite copyrights as well.
Thanks, Antonello Lobianco
Please fix your "From" field in the header of your messages, so that it shows your name.
done ;-)
On 06-Feb-2008, Antonello Lobianco wrote:
On mercoledì 6 febbraio 2008, Ben Finney wrote:
Is copyright the only violation they are claiming? Ignore meaningless "intellectual property" claims and look for what specific law they claim you're violating.
For now they only speak about "intellectual property rights", they never cite copyrights as well.
Meaningless unless they actually tell you what violation they're accusing you of. That will need to be phrased in terms of one or more specific laws, not the "intellectual property" nonsense.
no-reply blackhole@lobianco.org wrote:
Hello all.. I have a problem on my GPL C++ application.
Some years ago I has been in contact with a research group that was developing a C++ multi-agent model of agricultural systems.
We worked together for a couple of years within an EU founder research project and I learned C++.
Ended that experience, I decided to develop from scratch a "clone" of such model. I didn't absolutelly copy any class, function, algorithm, line or whatsoever of such program, even because, as it has been developed for tens of years by different people in different contests, it was quite a "spaghetti code" and it wasn't very clear at all!
Rather, I started again with the very general concepts and I re-wrote from scratch the program, that ended being rather different from those original and I published it as GPL.
Now these people (Germans) sent me a threat letter and asked me to switch off my web-site.
I suggest to simply ingore them. They are just spreading FUD. If you have a clear consience, a court will fully discharge you.
Can anyone tell me if such request has any legal foundation ?? I will particular appreciate those giving me points to theyr favour..
Thanks, Antonello Lobianco - http://www.RegMAS.org http://www.regmas.org/
Regards Matthias-Christian
On Wed, 2008-02-06 at 17:53 +0100, Matthias-Christian Ott wrote:
no-reply blackhole@lobianco.org wrote:
Now these people (Germans) sent me a threat letter and asked me to switch off my web-site.
I suggest to simply ingore them. They are just spreading FUD. If you have a clear consience, a court will fully discharge you.
Ignoring potential legal action is almost certainly the absolute worst way to respond - not least because hiring a lawyer to get real advice and write back to them is much cheaper than going to court (where you're not likely to recover your costs).
If they are blowing smoke, it's pretty cheap to get a professional to write to them and ask them to be specific, and that will likely be the last he hears from them. Also, some Universities will have retained services already which could be useful in this regard.
Cheers,
Alex.
On mercoledì 6 febbraio 2008, Alex Hudson wrote:
Ignoring potential legal action is almost certainly the absolute worst way to respond - not least because hiring a lawyer to get real advice and write back to them is much cheaper than going to court (where you're not likely to recover your costs).
If they are blowing smoke, it's pretty cheap to get a professional to write to them and ask them to be specific, and that will likely be the last he hears from them. Also, some Universities will have retained services already which could be useful in this regard.
Cheers,
Alex.
I used a software to search for similarities within source code, and I applied it over my code and their one. Results are here: http://regmas.org/codeMatch/
What do you think??? I can't really find anything similar aside a small section that refer to the usage of an external library (GLPK): The wrapper to such library is from the library (exelent) manual, and any-how it was me implementing it on the original code.. they was using instead an old expensive library..
Antonello
Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
What do you think???
That you should talk to a lawyer.
Indeed.
In this situation it could be of benefit to speak with legal counsel. I would be glad to put you in touch with experts in Italy who can help. If you would like their contact details please email me off-list at ftf@fsfeurope.org or coughlan@fsfeurope.org
Regards
Shane