This is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is established. etc etc
>From: "Michael Beck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: Is inherited class a derivative work? >Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 05:45:38 -0400 > [snip] > >Of course, by using the "fair use" doctrine, you could use API to create an >independent (cleanroom) implementation. That's what seems to be happening >with >OpenSource cleanroom implementations of Java API. > In the case of Java, there seems to be no need to rely on "fair use". The following is from, e.g., the JDK 1.1 documentation: Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SUN) hereby grants to you a fully-paid, nonexclusive, nontransferable, perpetual, worldwide limited license (without the right to sublicense) under SUN's intellectual property rights that are essential to practice this specification. This license allows and is limited to the creation and distribution of clean room implementations of this specification that (i) include a complete implementation of the current version of this specification without subsetting or supersetting, (ii) implement all the interfaces and functionality of the standard java.* packages as defined by SUN, without subsetting or supersetting, (iii) do not add any additional packages, classes or methods to the java.* packages (iv) pass all test suites relating to the most recent published version of this specification that are available from SUN six (6) months prior to any beta release of the clean room implementation or upgrade thereto, (v) do not derive from SUN source code or binary materials, and (vi) do not include any SUN binary materials without an appropriate and separate license from SUN. Also, keep in mind that the meaning of "fair use" is not internationally defined. The U.S. probably has the most generous "fair use" doctrine. Most other countries, especially European countries, have very narrow "fair dealing" provisions which are in most cases very limited e.g. use (copying, preparing derivative works, etc.) for news reporting, criticism and research. Further, "fair use" in the U.S. is an extremely fact specific inquiry - there are pretty much no absolutes. >However, as indicated in another thread here, Sun in its license indicates >that >it has control over changes to the API by stating that any changes to the >API >have to be published. Since nobody challenged it so far, it seems that >there >might be something to Sun's claim. > There may be something to Sun's claim if looked at from the implementation view point. A set of APIs can be viewed as a compilation. Creating an implementation that incorporates that compilation (and thus exposes that set of APIs) may require a license or other permission. >Michael > > > > > > APIs and even data base schemata (what you get after executing a > > > > sequence of SQL create table statements) are explicitly > > noted as: not > > > > copyright able, not patent able, not trademark able. > > > > > > That's interesting. Can you provide any references to it? > > (in English or > > > German). Is it German law, or EU? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Michael > >-- >license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3 _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3