License and copyright in generated code from wsdl2h in gso..

Khalid Aziz · External Since: Sep 10, 2005 Posts: 20

I recently started looking at gsoap package for potential use and
noticed that wsdl2h tool in this package places following in the header
of generated C code:

/* junk.h
........deleted...............
Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Robert van Engelen, Genivia Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
This part of the software is released under one of the following
licenses:
GPL or Genivia's license for commercial use.
*/

So the generated code not only automatically gets placed under GPL, it
also gets its copyright assigned to someone else. This makes me
uncomfortable that I not only do not get to control the license for
software I will be creating, but also I give the copyright up to someone
else. This to me will be similar to gcc insisting that any assembly code
generated using gcc be under GPL and copyright assigned to someone other
than me.

What do others think?

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Arnoud Engelfriet · External Since: Oct 20, 2006 Posts: 27

Khalid Aziz wrote:
> So the generated code not only automatically gets placed under GPL, it
> also gets its copyright assigned to someone else.

In many jurisdictions, an assignment of copyright requires a piece
of paper signed by the copyright holder (and usually by the recipient
as well). The piece of paper can often be replaced by a digitally
signed electronic document, but I do not believe for one second that
such an automatically generated notice qualifies as an assignment document.

I don't know this tool at all. Does it only transform your input
into code, or is some code written by this Robert van Engelen also
inserted? For example, startup code or some standard library?

If there's code by Van Engelen, he can set whateverlicense he wants
on this code. If that license is GPL, that means any combination of
that code with your work can only be distributed under the GPL
as well.

This is indeed similar to gcc, which adds code from libgcc (or
libstdc++) to your program. But gcc has an exception that permits
you to use whatever license you want to the output.
http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/index.php/SharedLibgccLegal

Arnoud

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Khalid Aziz · External Since: Sep 10, 2005 Posts: 20

On Tue, 2007-07-24 at 21:03 +0200, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> Khalid Aziz wrote:
> > So the generated code not only automatically gets placed under GPL, it
> > also gets its copyright assigned to someone else.

> I don't know this tool at all. Does it only transform your input
> into code, or is some code written by this Robert van Engelen also
> inserted? For example, startup code or some standard library?

This tool generates C code from XML file. So in a way, this tool is
generating all of the code in its output which can be considered to have
been written by Robert van Engelen since he wrote the tool.

> This is indeed similar to gcc, which adds code from libgcc (or
> libstdc++) to your program. But gcc has an exception that permits
> you to use whatever license you want to the output.
> http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/index.php/SharedLibgccLegal

This refers to linking one's final binary with gcc libraries and the
startup code. If one were to use gcc to generate assembly code from C
code without linking it with libgcc or libstdc++, gcc does not require
the resulting assembly language code to be licensed under GPL.

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Arnoud Engelfriet · External Since: Oct 20, 2006 Posts: 27

Khalid Aziz wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-07-24 at 21:03 +0200, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> > I don't know this tool at all. Does it only transform your input
> > into code, or is some code written by this Robert van Engelen also
> > inserted? For example, startup code or some standard library?
>
> This tool generates C code from XML file. So in a way, this tool is
> generating all of the code in its output which can be considered to have
> been written by Robert van Engelen since he wrote the tool.

The question is whether any of the code was the result of creative
activity by Van Engelen. Only then does copyright apply to the
code. A purely mechanical translation of your XML to some C statements
is not copyrighted, and then a GPL statement is irrelevant.

For example a straightforward Pascal-to-C translator that merely
takes "for x := 1 to 5 do" and turns it into "for (x=1; x < 5; x++)"
does not contain the result of creative activity. Therefore the
author of such a translator cannot claim any copyright interests
in the C output.

The creator of a LOGO to C translator that takes "SHOWTURTLE
REPEAT 5 FORWARD 1" and turns it into a complete graphical program
would certainly be able to impose licensing terms on such a program.

Libraries like libgcc and libstdc++ are the result of creative
activity. So a derivative work of those libraries can only be
distributed under GPL.

> This refers to linking one's final binary with gcc libraries and the
> startup code. If one were to use gcc to generate assembly code from C
> code without linking it with libgcc or libstdc++, gcc does not require
> the resulting assembly language code to be licensed under GPL.

Absolutely.

Arnoud

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Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/
Arnoud blogt nu ook: http://blog.iusmentis.com/

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