Re: What exactly is Derivative ?

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Marcus Brinkmann <Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> writes:
> On Mon, Mar 15, 1999 at 11:10:18PM +0100, Wichert Akkerman wrote:

> > 1) program A, statically linked with a library B
> > 2) program A, dynamically linker with a library B
> > 3) program A, only using header-files from library B

> Yes for these three. The type of linking is irrelevant.

Really? A dynamically linked executable does not include code from the
library, so it would take something more argument-like to convince me,
at least ;-)

The rules are supposed to be the same as for literary works. I think
it is perfectly legal to write and publish a commentary on a
copyrighted novel without asking the novel's author. As far as I can
see, that is analogous to "dynamically linking" to the novel. If I
printed the text of the novel on the right-hand pages and my
commentary on the left-hand ones, I'd be statically linking in the
novel, and would need permission from its author.

If the header files for the library only contains the likes of
assertations that "there is a function called FastFrobnicate taking
two integer arguments and returning void", the executable would be no
more in debt to the library than my commentary is indebted to the
novel when noting that there's a person called Jack M. Sparrow in there?

-- 
Henning Makholm