On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des@des....> wrote:
> Patrick Lamaizière <patfbsd@dave...> writes:
>> You cannot include a file under the GPL license without being
>> contaminated.  Even a simple .h with only some #define.

This is not correct, as DES explained. Anyway, the amd5536.h file has
a much more serious problem: it contains a license statement but not
the name of the copyright owner, which is mandatory. Anonymous
contents can not be licensed.

> On the contrary, as was settled in SCO v. IBM, constant and structure
> definitions are not copyrightable if they are dictated by external
> factors, such as compatibility with existing software or hardware.
>
> There are even cases in which actual code is not copyrightable,
> specifically if the algorithm it implements is so simple that no
> reasonable programmer would have implemented it in any other way.
>
> (SCO tried to argue, among other things, that Linux had stolen errno.h
> from SCO Unix)
>
> DES
> --
> Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des@des....

I mostly agree with you, but considering my previous experiences with
GPL-ed header files and their copyright owners(1), I would prefer not
to take the risk.

Reference

1. http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/lib/GLw/README.txt?rev=1.2

--
cd /usr/ports/sysutils/life
make clean
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