Re: What exactly is Derivative ?
On Sun, Mar 21, 1999 at 04:35:09PM +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
> 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 ;-)
No, you are confusing it with another case Wichert listed.
A dynamically linked program usually does include the header files of the
library it links to. [below I respond a bit too verbose to you analogy. But
please don't be side tracked by the below discussion of it, the real
difference is still the inclusion of header files. If you reimplement the
header files in a compliant way, _then_ dynamically linking is fine]
Furthermore, the program is only runable after it was linked to the library,
so you have to look at the program after the linking was done. It doesn't
matter if it is done at compile time or at run time. Think of dynamically
linking as "deferred" statically linking.
> The rules are supposed to be the same as for literary works.
This is not quite correct, because a computer is not a book cover and vice
versa.
> I think
> it is perfectly legal to write and publish a commentary on a
> copyrighted novel without asking the novel's author.
Sure.
> As far as I can
> see, that is analogous to "dynamically linking" to the novel.
Wrong. It is analogous to writing a program which comments another program,
whatever this means to you.
There is no analogous to "linking", dynamically or statically, in the
literary world, at least none I am aware of.
> 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.
I wonder where you got this from. Really, I think this is absurd. Imagine a
judge and an attorney, and the attorney would tell the judge what you are
trying to tell me. How would the judge respond? He would probably ask what
happens if you run the program. The attorney would have to say that the
right-hand pages of the dynamically linked book, which were empty, would now
be filled with the content of the other book.
Imagine a book, left-hand pages are commentary, right-hand pages are
empty. But every time you open the book, the right-hand pages are magically
filled with the words of the novel. You couldn't open the book and
read it without this magical effect.
Which judge would believe you that the right hand pages really are empty?
How would you proove it? What is the legal difference between a book that
only contains the novel if you open it (or look at it) and a book that
contains the novel always?
If you are bothered about the presence of the original novel, you can say
the following: The book only can be opened at all if the original novel is
present in the room you are. Does this now make a difference? Why?
Well, actually, I have to be careful with my argumentation. If you would
propose a machine that inserts the pages of the novel in your commentary
automatically, you would win. But then, there are still the header files.
> 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?
No, the header files are really included inthe derived work. If you can
reimplement the header files in a compatible way, you have won. But if you
use the original header files, this is more then fair use.
Thanks for this funny analogy :)
Marcus
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