Is it illegal to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project?
- by optician
There is some code which is GPL or LGPL that I am considering using for an iPhone project.
If I took that code (javascript) and rewrote it in a different language for use on the iPhone would that be a legal issue?
In theory the process that has happened is that I have gone through each line of the project, learnt what it is doing, and then re implemented the ideas in a new language.
To me it seems this is like learning how to implement something, but then re-implementing it separate from the original licence. Therefore you have only copied the algorithm, which arguably you could have learnt from somewhere else other than the original project.
Does the licence cover the specific implementation or the algorithm as well?
