Xorg copyright infrigement

Mateusz Jończyk mat.jonczyk at o2.pl
Sun Apr 27 02:14:40 PDT 2014


W dniu 02.04.2014 14:33, Mateusz Jończyk pisze:
> W dniu 02.04.2014 07:53, Dave Airlie pisze:
>>>> +/*
>>>> + * Generate a CVT standard mode from HDisplay, VDisplay and VRefresh.
>>>> + *
>>>> + * These calculations are stolen from the CVT calculation spreadsheet written
>>>> + * by Graham Loveridge. He seems to be claiming no copyright and there seems to
>>>> + * be no license attached to this. He apparently just wants to see his name
>>>> + * mentioned.
>>>> + *
>>>> + * This file can be found at http://www.vesa.org/Public/CVT/CVTd6r1.xls
>>>> + *
>>> In the copyright law, the license defaults to "illegal to use in any circumstances".
>>> The fact that the author "seems to be claiming no copyright" is not enough.
>>> So the code should probably be cleanly rewritten or a license from the copyright
>>> holders obtained.
>>> As specified in the file header at
>>> http://www.elo.utfsm.cl/~elo212/docs/CVTd6r1.xls
>>> which seems to be the same as mentioned in the comment
>>> "Comments, bugs, call Graham Loveridge at 408 934-4394 or fax (408) 262-7989 or
>>> e-mail graham at genesis-microchip.com".
>>>
>>> Rev 1.0 is apparently based on some other spreadsheet by Andy Morrish so he should
>>> be contacted also.
>>>
>>
>> IANAL and I doubt you are, but I don't think you can copyright
>> mathematical forumla, its not like
>> we are copying the spreadsheet here, which is what would be copyrighted.
>>
>> Dave.
>>
> As mentioned further in the comment:
> 
> + * Comments and structure corresponds to the comments and structure of the xls.
> + * This should ease importing of future changes to the standard (not very
> + * likely though).
> 
> The mathematical formula is not copyrightable, but the order of computations,
> separation into the steps, etc. is.
> I may CC debian-legal for some guidance.
> 
> I will write to the email address mentioned in the spreadsheet. Let's see if it is
> active.
> 

BUMP!
Any progress on this?
It should be fairly easy to cleanly rewrite, but I desperately don't have any time
now - have to work on my Master thesis.

This code has drifted to the kernel and probably some other programs (at least CVT,
but as I see it is based on the same code).
It can be currently found at least in
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/tree/hw/xfree86/modes/xf86cvt.c
and
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/tree/hw/xwayland/xwayland-cvt.c

In Linux:
drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcvt.c
drivers/gpu/drm/drm_modes.c


Greetings,
Mateusz Jończyk


More information about the xorg-devel mailing list