On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 03:04:42AM +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote: > On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 08:00:56PM -0500, Glenn Maynard wrote: > > A more likely scenario: you write a program in Pascal, and give it > > to me. Pascal is a useless language, so I programmatically convert > > it to C (a fairly simple task), and then spend a few weeks improving > > the program in C. > > Frankly, you would have a fight to prove in court that the C program > is a derivative work of the Pascal one *at all*. Lawyer-bait, but when > you start out with a scenario like that it will never become any more > clear later on. The best answer you can ever get, starting from this > position, is "maybe". This is largely because a C program that you > want to modify is not going to look much like the original Pascal > program - that's the reason why you converted it in the first place > (the status of the initial, programmatically converted C program is > not relevant; you can drop it from the scenario with no effect since > it is just a restatement of the Pascal program). Remember that > algorithms cannot be copyrighted, only patented: copyright protects > only the expression of the idea, not the idea.
I think what you mean is that no new copyright is created in that creation; that's correct--I don't get a copyright claim in the C code merely by converting it, nor does the creator of the converting program. I don't know how that looks from a copyright perspective; perhaps it's a derivative work of the Pascal code, where no new copyright was created in the derivation, or perhaps copyright simply views it as the same work. I don't think it matters here. The issue isn't whether the conversion itself creates a derivative work, though. The issue is whether the "preferred form for modification" is that C code, now that I've converted it, stuck the Pascal code in cold storage never to be touched again, and made substantial modifications to to C code. I believe the GPL permits this type of evolution, without requiring the old, useless, outdated Pascal code be dragged along for all time. -- Glenn Maynard