alt Hacker News> But, it works, and the world now has a free software RAR implementation.
Does it? How are you legally intending to use copyright to license this machine output? How would you know it's not encumbered in any way?
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perching_aix • yesterday at 8:46 PM
Really unsure why this is getting downvoted, to my understanding this is a massive, unsettled concern.
It wasn't even a disasm/pseudocode to formal spec flow, and then a separate human implementation. The same human has been in the loop throughout, and large parts of it were generated directly.
It's basically guaranteed tainted.
Edit: I should have skimmed a bit more patiently, there was in fact no "disasm/pseudocode + the human getting tainted" part to this apparently.
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In all seriousness, why should anyone care?
I always found software IP to be absurd, but this is a particularly absurd situation. We're talking here about a small utility tool implemented from scratch and open sourced, with no apparent intent to make any money from it.
Are you concerned about the "encumberence" of using "unlicensed" tools to manipulate .doc, or .pdf, or .mp3 files?! Well I'm not, and if anyone ever tried to sue me for improper access to their proprietary formats, I'll show them some old testament impropriety.