Michael Beck wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Angelo Schneider > > Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 05:33 > > > As I pointed out allready: linking to an API is not, I repeat: not a > > derived work. > > "derived work" is a legal term. You can not redefine it in > > your license. > > Why are in insisting that "deriving a new class" is equal to "linking to an > API"? Unless you believe that a class cannot be copyrighted, please see the > class as a copyrighted entity, the same way as you see a book. > > If we agree that class is a copyrighted entity, then inheritance is NOT calling > individual functions of that class. If you make changes to the class via > inheritance - you add new elements, you modify existing elements - you are > adapting this class to be or do something different than it was designed to be > or do. >
If I write a class which extends java.util.Dictionary, then whose implementation of java.util.Dictionary am I adapting: - GNU Classpath's? - Kaffe's? - Sun's? - our (ACUNIA's) own? - a student in (say) Teheran whose JVM project I haven't even heard of yet? Regards Chris -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3