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I start with a working GPL project. I wholesale gut out modules and rewrite them from scratch. Sometimes my rewrite would combine a few modules into one module. Other times my rewrite would subdivide a module into a few more modules. So I don't even preserve the modular structure. I'd do this until nothing remains of the GPL code. As I go I'd be modifying the interfaces a bit as well, so even interfaces between modules would be unrecognizable from the original.

See the strategy. I'm just using the GPL project as a test harness as I insert my rewrites. It would be kind of a dwindling test harness. In this case, where there would be no GPL code left in my project, do I have any obligations under GPL?

I found this FAQ, but it is about making mods not replacing all code.

MadHatter
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Joe C
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    Does this answer your question? Theseus' Paradox applied to code copyright - while the question mentions the Apache License, the actual license is irrelevant. – Philip Kendall Apr 05 '22 at 17:54
  • Should I close this as a duplicate now that you found that? – Joe C Apr 05 '22 at 19:27
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    If you feel it answers your question, then yes please. If you think your question is different, then please edit it to explain what the difference is - thanks! – Philip Kendall Apr 05 '22 at 19:28
  • I'd be inclined to close it as a duplicate of this question, not because there's anything great about my answer, but because it gathers together a number of questions here that address the same issue. – MadHatter Apr 05 '22 at 19:53
  • @MadHatter I'd almost be thinking we should mark one of those two questions as a duplicate of the other and we can then have one canonical question for this. – Philip Kendall Apr 05 '22 at 22:19
  • @PhilipKendall you may be right, but since we now have a canonical questions question, could you perhaps go there and post an answer proposing the canonisation, in which you can more easily be clearer about which one is to be the canonical one? Or you could post a new meta question about it, as you see fit. I also note that we (the community) don't seem to agree on an answer - not least because I don't think there's much binding jurisprudence about this issue - which may make canonicalising the issue more difficult. – MadHatter Apr 06 '22 at 07:45

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