In article <49C8C151.5C3D7E0A@web.de>, Alexander Terekhov
<terekhov@web.de> wrote:
Rjack wrote:
Barry Margolin wrote:
In article <731831868.575118@irys.nyx.net>,
anonb6e9@nyx3.nyx.net (Name withheld by request) wrote:
How might one ethically/legally re-write a suite of
scripts one wrote for a former employer, so that the new
code may be shared under GPL?
IANAL, but I think this is likely to be difficult. You
have to ensure that your new code looks nothing like the
old code.
http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise27.html
"One way to avoid infringement when writing a program that is
similar to another program is through the use of a “clean room”
procedure. This is what was done when companies cloned the BIOS
of the IBM personal computer to produce compatible systems. In
a clean room procedure, there are two separate teams working on
the development of the new program.
How can you use the clean room procedure when the original
programmer is writing the new program? There are no teams,
there's just one guy.
The clean room procedure only makes sense if you're
reverse-engineering a program, not if you're using your own
memory and talents.