Frank Heckenbach wrote:
or make the Pascal interface "uncopyrighted"(*) as you suggested;
Read the thread. I said "except as needed to respect the original works".
You said:
: With all respect for the GPL and the LGPL, I would : argue strongly that Pascal interface files be left uncopyrighted.
OK, I will try to clarify the idea behind what I said (or at least tried to say). When I wrote the message, I were rather irritated finding software that can not be used because the wrong license is attached. In retrospect, I think this is caused by MySQL AB, changing the license from version 3 to version 4.
There is a piece of software that we want to use with Pascal. Most of the time, C-headers are supplied with the software. The C-headers are the "original work". Now, someone translates the C-headers into Pascal. The Pascal interface units are a "derived work". Now, the Pascal interface units have two copyright owners, the author of the original work and the author of the translation - both have contributed to the new work.
My approach to this is -- with the predominance of C, we should be glad that somewhere we can find Pascal interfaces. So, we only make things unnecessary difficult if the C-to-Pascal translator attaches extra restrictions, extra licensing terms or even the wrong license. So, the idea is to just add a sentence to the Pascal units that (a) the Pascal-translation-part of it as-such doesn't add anything to the licensing terms and as-such is "uncopyrighted" and (b) the copyrights of the original work (the C-headers) have to be respected -- but they will vary or may even change in time.
This is what Peter, Gale and I do with the Mac OS X Pascal Interfaces -- I am open to suggestions as to what would be the best way to say this in terms of copyright law.
Regards,
Adriaan van Os