Re: [PATCH 1/3] PIE support for arm (copyright...)

[Rich Felker <dalias@aerifal.cx>]

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 12:23:29PM -0700, Isaac wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 04:38:59PM +0300, Timo Ter??s wrote:
> > ---
> > Originally based on the glibc's implementation, but as this is
> > very short function (of which only maybe 10 lines are from the
> > original work), and the rest is modified to suit musl. I believe
> > we could just place on public domain.
> 
> (Disclaimer: IANAL)
> 
> Ick. Don't do that.
> At least, not without review from a regular glibc contributor/maintainer, 
> Eben Moglen, the author, or another authority who could state that it is
> the FSF's position that this does not infringe.
> 
> While it seems minimal, there are other considerations:
> (0) If a court disagrees and rules that it is copyright infringement, 
> what happens?
> 
> (1) If it gets publicized, the potential for FUD is huge.
> 
> (2) Even if it's fair use/de minimis, there is still a risk of legal action.
> And that alone is a big problem.
> In fact, the perception of a risk is a problem.

Agreed. There is no reason to even look at, much less copy, glibc code
to do this. All that's needed for Scrt1.s is to make crt1.s
position-independent.

Rich