Re: how much is too much?

[David Kastrup]

Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
>>
>>> Chad Whitacre <chad@zetaweb.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> I'm trying to determine what the threshold is in terms of lines of code 
>>>> I can copy/paste from GPL software before coming under the GPL myself.
>>>>
>>>> Is this issue spelled out anywhere?
>>>
>>> It depends on local interpretation of copyright law.  
>>>
>>> The FSF use 10 normal lines as a very rough guideline for accepting
>>> patches without explicit copyright assignment.  This doesn't mean
>>> that 10 lines is the law, but that the FSF themselves are unlikely
>>> to sue over such trivial code pieces.
>>
>> Uh, no.  
>
> Uh, yes.
>
>> That means that the FSF themselves believe that they are
>> unlikely to get sued over such trivial code pieces.  
>
> Yes.  And if they don't believe others will be able to successfully
> sue them over such trivial code pieces, they are not likely to
> believe they themselves will be able to successfully sue others over
> the same.

10 lines is the defensive line of the FSF.  I think it likely that the
limit where they will progress to lawsuit themselves would be larger.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum