GNU licensing

[Dave Sill]

In a previous posting to comp.lang.c I wrote:
>>       (1) My understanding of BISON is that if you use it, then
>>           the thing you created with it must be freely distributed.
>>           Agreed?
>
>No.  The BISON license covers only BISON and BISON derivatives
>(mutations).  You are free to do whatever you want with the output of
>BISON (manure?).

Others have since pointed out that BISON outputs copyrighted C source
code in the form of a parser.

The reply above was based on my reading of the COPYING file
distributed with BISON that applies to BISON itself, not its output.

While the output of BISON is indeed copyrighted, I suspect that the
FSF would be standing on wobbly legs if they tried to take someone to
court for violating that copyright.

First, nothing in the man page suggests that the output is
copyrighted.  Second, the parser generated by BISON does not output a
copyright message when executed.  Third, the only indication that the
output is copyrighted is in a C source file that may never have been
viewed by the person who generated it.  Granted, it's unlikely that
one would never have looked it, but it's not impossible.  The real
problem for the FSF would be to prove that the offender was aware of
the copyright, especially if the offender doesn't have the source code
of the parser.

I suggest that the FSF change the parser produced by BISON to output a
copyright notice each time it is executed.  I also think that messages
notifying users of the copyrighted nature of the output of BISON
should be placed in the COPYING file and the BISON man page.

=========
The opinions expressed above are mine.

"In case of doubt, decide in favor of what is correct."
					-- Karl Kraus