Re: How long is it acceptable to leave *undistributable* files in

["Joe Moore" <joemoore@iegrec.org>]

Michael Poole wrote:
> See also http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html, which remarks both
> that the whole of the derivative work must represent an original work
> of authorship, rather than an arrangement of distinct works, and that
> mechanical (non-creative, ergo non-copyrightable) transformation of the
> original does not make a derivative.

Doesn't this mean that the compiled (in the computer sense) binary is not a
derivative work of the source?  (mechanical transformation from C code to
ELF executable does not make a derivative?)

That's an interpretation of law that seems a bit too extreme to be
reasonable.
It would (if correct) make a lot of current copyright infringement (or as it
is sometimes called "software piracy") legitimate.  Since I'm not
distributing the source code (which is the original work of authorship),
just a mechanical transformation of it (ergo non-copyrightable), giving
MSOffice.exe to all my friends is not a copyright violation?????

--Joe