Bugzilla Bug 110931

The header of the file "files/5.0.0/vmware-linux-tools" in
app-emulation/vmware-linux-tools-5.0.0 states:

=====
#!/sbin/runscript
#
# Copyright (C) 1998-2002 VMware, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
# Updated by stuart@gentoo.org to support Gentoo Linux
#
# $Header:
/var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/app-emulation/vmware-linux-tools/files/5.0.0/vmware-linux-tools,v
1.1 2005/04/30 21:26:48 stuart Exp $
#
# This script manages the services needed to run VMware software
=====

This file takes the place of the installer/services.sh file in the original
VMWare tarball.

This file seems to be very different to the original file - as you would expect,
given Gentoo's init system. Given this, *can* the file actually be copyrighted
to VMWare? And if it isn't, wouldn't that preclude the distribution of the file
in an emerge sync?

I'm attaching a diff file showing the differences. There is code that is common
to both, but not very much. I doubt that it could be copyrighted to VMWare myself.

Portage 2.0.51.22-r3 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.6,
glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.9-gentoo-r9 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.9-gentoo-r9 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1400MHz
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled]
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5, 2.4.2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.10
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r10
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.20
virtual/os-headers:  2.4.22-r1
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -mcpu=pentium4 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env
/usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3.4/env
/usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -mcpu=pentium4 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/
http://gentoo.inode.at/ http://mirror.ovh.net/gentoo-distfiles/
http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://distfiles.gentoo.org/"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/home/ciaran/portage/overlay"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 X acpi alsa apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups curl dga dvd eds
emboss encode esd fam flac fluidsynth foomaticdb fortran gd gdbm gif gmail gnome
gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 imagemagick imlib ipv6 jack java jbig joystick
jpeg kde kdeenablefinal ladspa libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx mmxext motif mozsvg
mp3 mpeg multitarget ncurses nls nodrm nptl ogg oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib
perl pic png povray ppds python qt quicktime readline real samba sdl slang sse
sse2 ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts v4l vorbis
xine xml2 xmms xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS

Created an attachment (id=71754) [edit]
Output of "diff -u services.sh vmware-linux-tools"

Diff file between the two files.

Hi Ciaran,

I believe you're right, that the init.d script I wrote isn't really
copyrightable to VMware.  I'll address this bug when I add the workstationt
tools for VMware Workstation 5.5.

Best regards,
Stu

I've removed the copyright notice from the ebuilds.  Thanks for reporting this.