Stefaan A Eeckels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:32:34 +0200 > David Kastrup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Stefaan A Eeckels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> >> > I write an original program that happens to use your GPLed >> > library. I license my source code under a non-Free license to >> > Alex. He compiles my code, and links it with your GPLed library that >> > happened to be on his system (or that he downloaded for the purpose, >> > for all I care). Go ahead, sue me for copyright violation. >> >> <URL:http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6366> >> >> The Copyright Act, at 17 U.S.C. ยง101, is a little vague and >> doesn't say anything at all about software: >> >> A ``derivative work'' is a work based upon one or more >> pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical >> arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture >> version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, >> condensation or any other form in which a work may be recast, >> transformed or adapted. A work consisting of editorial >> revisions, annotations, elaborations or other modifications >> which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, >> is a ``derivative work''. >> >> Now while we are not talking software here, the last sentence makes >> clear that even a work which as a whole represents an original work of >> authorship can be a derivative work. > > That's to be read in its entirety: > >> A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, >> elaborations or other modifications which, as a whole, >> represent an original work of authorship, is a ``derivative >> work''. > > An original program in source code format, and contains function > and/or system calls does not consist of "revisions, annotations, > elaborations or other modifications" to the libraries or the OS.
Sigh. But a literary work consisting of annotations does not contain material from the original work. It is, as a whole, an original work of authorship. > It's a wholly new work. It contains _no_ code from the libraries or > the OS, and thus it cannot be a derivative work. But in the literary case, exactly that does _not_ hold, according to the letter of the law. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss