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weaken a bit
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user3840170
user3840170
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They areIt’s certainly not correct to claim minified JavaScript is source code.

The GPL (both version 2 and 3) defines ‘source code’ as

the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

It doesn’t matter if the program is a binary executed by the CPU or text interpreted by a JavaScript runtime; what matters is that the structure of the program be legible to someone who might want to modify it. Minified JavaScript is clearly not a form that conveys this structure clearly, and so it cannot be considered ‘source code’ according to the GPL.

It is also an explicit position of the FSF (who authored the license) that minified JavaScript does not constitute ‘source code’. Richard Stallman writes in ‘The JavaScript Trap’:

The source code of a program means the preferred form for programmers to modify—including helpful spacing, explanatory remarks, and meaningful names. Compacted code is a bogus, useless substitute for source code; the real source code of these programs is not available to the users, so users cannot understand it; therefore the programs are nonfree.

They are not correct.

The GPL (both version 2 and 3) defines ‘source code’ as

the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

It doesn’t matter if the program is a binary executed by the CPU or text interpreted by a JavaScript runtime; what matters is that the structure of the program be legible to someone who might want to modify it. Minified JavaScript is clearly not a form that conveys this structure clearly, and so it cannot be considered ‘source code’ according to the GPL.

It is also an explicit position of the FSF (who authored the license) that minified JavaScript does not constitute ‘source code’. Richard Stallman writes in ‘The JavaScript Trap’:

The source code of a program means the preferred form for programmers to modify—including helpful spacing, explanatory remarks, and meaningful names. Compacted code is a bogus, useless substitute for source code; the real source code of these programs is not available to the users, so users cannot understand it; therefore the programs are nonfree.

It’s certainly not correct to claim minified JavaScript is source code.

The GPL (both version 2 and 3) defines ‘source code’ as

the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

It doesn’t matter if the program is a binary executed by the CPU or text interpreted by a JavaScript runtime; what matters is that the structure of the program be legible to someone who might want to modify it. Minified JavaScript is clearly not a form that conveys this structure clearly, and so it cannot be considered ‘source code’ according to the GPL.

It is also an explicit position of the FSF (who authored the license) that minified JavaScript does not constitute ‘source code’. Richard Stallman writes in ‘The JavaScript Trap’:

The source code of a program means the preferred form for programmers to modify—including helpful spacing, explanatory remarks, and meaningful names. Compacted code is a bogus, useless substitute for source code; the real source code of these programs is not available to the users, so users cannot understand it; therefore the programs are nonfree.

Source Link
user3840170
user3840170
  • 422
  • 3
  • 11

They are not correct.

The GPL (both version 2 and 3) defines ‘source code’ as

the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

It doesn’t matter if the program is a binary executed by the CPU or text interpreted by a JavaScript runtime; what matters is that the structure of the program be legible to someone who might want to modify it. Minified JavaScript is clearly not a form that conveys this structure clearly, and so it cannot be considered ‘source code’ according to the GPL.

It is also an explicit position of the FSF (who authored the license) that minified JavaScript does not constitute ‘source code’. Richard Stallman writes in ‘The JavaScript Trap’:

The source code of a program means the preferred form for programmers to modify—including helpful spacing, explanatory remarks, and meaningful names. Compacted code is a bogus, useless substitute for source code; the real source code of these programs is not available to the users, so users cannot understand it; therefore the programs are nonfree.