Stefaan A Eeckels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:51:48 +0200 > David Kastrup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Stefaan A Eeckels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> > 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. > > You cannot "annotate, revise, elaborate or otherwise modify" without > anything of the original work.
I have here a secondary literary work covering "Ulysses", consisting pretty much exclusively of annotations. Where there are citations, they are short enough not to count as copyrightable in itself. But it certainly is a derivative work. > Programs that use a library or an OS are not "revisions, > annotations, elaborations or other modifications" of the library or > the OS. Naturally. So one has to translate the examples from the context of literary works to that of computer programs. >> > 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. > > In the specific case of "annotations, revisions, elaborations and > other modifications", which supposes that there is a work that is > revised, annotated, elaborated or otherwise modified". Are you > claiming that all programs are modifications, elaborations, > revisions and annotations of the OS and the libraries? I am not claiming any such thing. I am just saying that the lack of direct verbatim inclusion of a copyrightable amount of material is not a necessity in the explanation for literary works, and so it is not obvious why it would have to be a necessary criterion in the case of software. -- 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