On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, Josselin Mouette wrote:
Le mardi 03 mars 2009 �0:41 -0800, Bill Unruh a �it :Well, no, there is a problem. Whether that problem is due to a misreading of the law, differing laws (Under US, the concept of derivative work is a very important and strong concept. Publishers have been successfully sued for using less than .3% of another work in their work.From your comments, it appears that German copyright law does not contain that concept. Unfortunately all Linux distributions are world wide and have to worry about the law in many jurisdictions, especially the USA.Indeed, the concept of derived work does not exist in European law. By default, a derived work is a counterfeit. Only when the author allows it (using e.g. a Free Software license) is it allowed at all.
Sorry, but that means that the concept does exist. The binary of a program is a totally different animal from the original. Not a shred of similarity in expression exists between the two. If I grep phrases from the original in the binary, I will not find them. Thus the binary, like a translation, is NOT a copy of the original. Thus the European law must also have some idea of what the relation is between say a translation and the original under copyright law. That is what "derivative works" is all about. Exactly how far does the copyright in the original extend over something which is clearly not a copy of expression (which is all copyright includes, it does not include ideas) but is also clearly based on the original and on the form of expression of the original.
-- William G. Unruh | Canadian Institute for| Tel: +1(604)822-3273 Physics&Astronomy | Advanced Research | Fax: +1(604)822-5324 UBC, Vancouver,BC | Program in Cosmology | unruh@physics.ubc.ca Canada V6T 1Z1 | and Gravity | www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/