From: On Web <a@...>
Date: 2007-09-20T08:55:05+09:00
Subject: Re: how can I remove all the comments in my c program.

"Marcin Raczkowski" <mailing.mr@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:46F18F2D.6040100@gmail.com...
> Konrad Meyer wrote:
>> Quoth Marcin Raczkowski:
>>> On Web wrote:
snip

>>>> Why would anyone want to remove the comments from a program?
>>>>
>>>> Paul
snip
>>>>
>>> becouse they have to release it as open source becouse of GPL or other 
>>> OS license and they want to make imposible to actually use that code by 
>>> striping comments and obscuring code.
>>
>> Umm... That's illegal, by terms of the GPL. The GPL defines source code 
>> as
>> the preferred form for modification. Intentionally obfuscated code isn't
>> the preferred form for modification. So while it's technically "source
>> code", it isn't according to the definition in the GPL, and thus they're
>> violating the license by doing that.
>>
> well, i had "pleasure" of having internship in company which policy was - 
> use only MIT/BSD or LGPL as liblary, we won't pay for any licenses.
> If you HAVE to use GPL make sure your changes are not documented, and you 
> use variable names like a,b,c and function names like fa fb etc.
>
> while it's illegal to obscure code that's covered by gpl, if you write 
> code that extends it, you can argue it's your programming style, code like 
> this even not technically obfuscated is useless.
>
> GPL can't force you to write documentation or make sefl-documenting code.

Not quite the same thing as taking out what's already there. I really hope 
the name of this company comes to light so they can get the negative 
response they deserve.

Paul