On Fri, Nov 12, 2004 at 11:35:07AM -0500, Bob George wrote:
Dallman Ross wrote:
[...]
Grab my Virus Snaggers(tm) package and look in the vsnag.genvars.rc
file. You can use that file even if you don't wish to use the whole
vsnag program.
I understood from your licensing terms that such use is NOT allowed:
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Take the files, learn from the files, and use them to take back control
of your email. But do not lift my work from them for use in your own
code. Vsnag does not fall within the GNU Public License, and it never
has; and the reason is that I wish to retain rights to my code. I worked
hard to get here. If you want to profit from my work, you should contact
me with a proposal for collaboration or private licensing. Clarifying,
at the risk of repeating myself: the use of the files is free. The code
itself is not.
--- cut here --- cut here ---
For the main file and module(s), that's true, strictly speaking. (Thank
you for reading carefully.) The "genvars" file doesn't completely fall
under that rubric, however. For one, most of what's in there are quite
simple assignment statements, not really snippets of code that one would
reasonably find to be intellectual sweat-effort. (Except that I thought
up many of the names . . .) Also, some of the assignments in there are
not only dastardly simple, but also apocryphal, and not necessarily of
my doing. Examples:
SPACE = " "
TAB = " " # that was a literal tab in the quotes
WS = "$SPACE$TAB" # whitespace
NL = "
"
I would not care or dare to claim copyright on that. So we have to
interpret -- as with any work or compilation -- with a smidgen of common
sense. In the case of genvars, what I call mine is the compilation
taken as a gestalt thing, not necessarily every individual statement
therein. (Think of a piece of writing by analogy: the author might
copyright it, by which would be meant the sentences, their organization,
the way the whole thing comes together, and so on. ["Look and feel."
Heh.] Even if there is an index or compendium at the back, although
copyright would extend to the compilation itself, the author has no
rights with regard to individual words found therein. I could write
"so much depends/upon// a red wheel/barrow" and copyright it [if
W.C. Williams hadn't beat me to it]; but I wouldn't own the term "wheel
barrow," whether with or without a space.) :-)
Moreover, look at my penultimate sentence that you quoted from the vsnag
docs: "The use of the files is free." Now, refer back to what I wrote
on-list: "You can use that file" ("for its intended purpose" is implied,
and it says that explicitly elsewhere in the license agreement).
Genvars' purpose is to provide some general assignments useful within
vsnag, but also useful in, um, general to procmail users, which is why
the file's name is "genvars". (The self-test.rc tool in the package
is similarly stated to be useful for procmailers generally, not only
for those using the Virus Snaggers package.)
I don't mind if you INCLUDERC the genvars file and use those var names
in your procmail stuff. I DO mind if you do that with a coding project
for-profit or fame. Writing Bob George's Wham-o-Rama All-in-One
Spam-Fragger and Virus-Nixer" and sticking either my genvars file or
even just the brunt of the "compilation" essentially as-is in there so
that it's basically something of mine you're touting as something of
yours, would earn my stern objection.
In summary, the genvars contents are meant for, and I'm fine with their
use for, satisfying your general private procmail needs. Ditto public,
if that means a server running procmail for the good of its users,
including commercially, so long as I don't lose credit for what I've
offered. (And Ruud has some very similar stuff available free also,
fwiw.) The rest of the vsnag code beyond simple assignment statements,
I want to proceed more carefully with as far as how free you should feel
to extract things from. (Once again: use for its intended purpose is
exactly fine.)
Basically, you need only grok the difference between using the tool and
"lifting" (as in theft of) the tool. I am entirely persuaded that you
can properly discern the difference. Some of the writing students I
have had in the past, however, I have proof were not so conscientious.
:-) (And Google is a marvelous thing. <wink>)
I hope that helps clarify things.
Dallman
[ vsnag is at http://vsnag.spamless.us ]
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