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Non-interactive Program with Affero clause

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-Suppose there's some program licensed with an Affero clause such as mentioned in (7d). Then I create a derivative work of it which is *not* an interactive program; in fact, it's a completely non-interactive program with specified output; a 'grep' or 'sed' workalike, perhaps. But there was some large chunk of code from the Affero-licensed application which I found useful for this program.+Suppose there's some program licensed with an Affero clause such as mentioned in (7d) that requires "the work contain functioning facilities that allow users to immediately obtain copies of its Complete Corresponding Source Code". Then I create a derivative work of it which is ''not'' an interactive program, but a completely non-interactive program with specified output--a 'grep' or 'sed' workalike, perhaps. But there was some large chunk of code from the Affero-licensed application which I found useful for this program.
How can such a program comply with a 7(d) requirement? Providing quine-like functionality when a special switch is provided (foobar --provide-source) would probably meet the letter of the requirement, but isn't practical. Could the program simply provide a URL where the source can be downloaded? Or provide instructions similar to section 3(b) of GPLv2? The current language doesn't seem to allow it. How can such a program comply with a 7(d) requirement? Providing quine-like functionality when a special switch is provided (foobar --provide-source) would probably meet the letter of the requirement, but isn't practical. Could the program simply provide a URL where the source can be downloaded? Or provide instructions similar to section 3(b) of GPLv2? The current language doesn't seem to allow it.
What if the requirement were rewritten to apply to a human (the person making the program available), rather than a restriction on the technical details of the program being written? As a human, I could easily satisfy the requirement to provide source to all the users of my program, even if it's not practical for the program to do this. What if the requirement were rewritten to apply to a human (the person making the program available), rather than a restriction on the technical details of the program being written? As a human, I could easily satisfy the requirement to provide source to all the users of my program, even if it's not practical for the program to do this.

Revision as of 19:38, 3 June 2006

Suppose there's some program licensed with an Affero clause such as mentioned in (7d) that requires "the work contain functioning facilities that allow users to immediately obtain copies of its Complete Corresponding Source Code". Then I create a derivative work of it which is not an interactive program, but a completely non-interactive program with specified output--a 'grep' or 'sed' workalike, perhaps. But there was some large chunk of code from the Affero-licensed application which I found useful for this program.

How can such a program comply with a 7(d) requirement? Providing quine-like functionality when a special switch is provided (foobar --provide-source) would probably meet the letter of the requirement, but isn't practical. Could the program simply provide a URL where the source can be downloaded? Or provide instructions similar to section 3(b) of GPLv2? The current language doesn't seem to allow it.

What if the requirement were rewritten to apply to a human (the person making the program available), rather than a restriction on the technical details of the program being written? As a human, I could easily satisfy the requirement to provide source to all the users of my program, even if it's not practical for the program to do this.