>I'm confused to. We're treading new territory, and no one knows. AFAIK,
>no open-source license has ever had a day in court; relativly few
>commercial ones have; and no one's ever created the mix of the
>GPL-open-source and propriety software like we're trying to.
>
>We do have a few things to argue:
> 1) Is a work that absolutely requires another, and is built and used
> only with another, a derivative work?
It can be, but it isn't necessarily. Just think of an MS-Word file. It is
created (=built) solely with MS-Word, it is viewed, printed etc. only with
MS-Word (=used). However, it is not a derivative work because it does not
contain parts of MS-Word. It only contains your data in a format Word
understands. Same applies to FreeCard stacks. The data is owned by whoever
created the stack or Word document. Your novel doesn't become Microsoft
property just because you write it in Word. Do you get my point?
> 2) If not, does it become a derivative work if it must use code from
> that other project?
Not solely. The criteria that make something a derived work is that it has
been created based on the work it's derived from. "based on", not "using",
mind you! If you copy a code resource or icon from ResEdit and use that to
create your new resource editor, one could argue that it's a derived work.
However, if you use ResEdit to set up the resources for your program, then
it isn't necessarily a derived work. Yes, a derived program usually links
to code of the originating program, and thus it uses this code, but it
doesn't have to be vice versa.
>FreeCard stacks absolutely require FreeCard, are built with FreeCard,
>are used only with FreeCard, and require code from FreeCard to run. A
>good argument could be made both ways. Standalones are placed in a file
>with FreeCard.
The way I understood it (and apparently RMS, too) is that a FreeCard stack
is considered as input/output which FreeCard processes. Input and output
are explicitly excluded from this by the GPL:
----- GPL snip! -----
The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the
Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether
that is true depends on what the Program does.
----- end of snip -----
Cheers,
-- M. Uli Kusterer
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http://www.weblayout.com/witness
'The Witnesses of TeachText are everywhere...'
