What does "new" mean in Section 1.9 (b) of the MPL v 1.1.?

[Luis Villa]

On 4/2/10 12:50 PM, Smith, McCoy wrote:
> Since MPL is undergoing revision right now, you might want to post your
> question on the revision site: http://mpl.mozilla.org/ If that section
> is unclear, they’d probably want to clarify it.

We're also lurking here in case of questions like this, for what it is 
worth.

> *From:* Maria Magliano [mailto:maria at aet-law.com]
> *Sent:* Friday, April 02, 2010 12:48 PM
> *To:* license-discuss at opensource.org
> *Subject:* What does "new" mean in Section 1.9 (b) of the MPL v 1.1.?
>
> Hi Everyone!
>
> I’m trying to understand what the term “new” means in the MPL definition
> of a “Modification” in Section 1.9. (b) (I reproduce the entire
> definition below for reference). Does “new” mean a file that, apart from
> the MPL-covered code, did not exist previously (i.e. anywhere in the
> universe?) or, does it also mean a file that may already exist but was
> not previously combined with MPL-covered code (so that “new” refers to
> the novel combination of the two)? I’m trying to make sure that
> pre-existing proprietary code is not considered as being “new” under
> that subsection by being combined with MPL-covered code for the first time.

I have added a comment to our commenting tool to reflect the ambiguity 
in the use of 'new' here:
https://mpl.co-ment.com/text/NMccndsidpP/view/?comment_id_key=kZDPJ6wstkI

It might help the discussion if you elaborated a bit on what you say 
when you meant 'combined... for the first time'- do you mean that the 
pre-existing proprietary code will be compiled together with the 
MPL-covered code? Or do you mean that copyrightable material from the 
MPL-covered code will be copied and pasted into the pre-existing 
proprietary code?

Luis

-- 
Luis Villa, Mozilla Legal
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work phone: 650-903-0800 x327
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