RE: [GPL] No linking with proprietary programs: where?
On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, SSchott wrote:
>
> This is very general. Copyright law can preempt licensing agreements-- for
> example licensing provisions prohibiting decompiliation and reverse
> engineering have been found to be in violation of the "fair use" provision
> of the Copyright Act. (Sega v. Accolade holds this I'm pretty sure... maybe
> Vault v. Quaid too)
Sega v. Accolade doesn't address licensing agreements, and the kinds of
licensing agreements you're talking about (EULA's) are fundamentally
different than copyright licenses like the GPL.
> The point being that if locate_outer is an original piece of work, it can be
> distributed on any terms. It does not matter that it cannot be run without
> locate_inner. If it is original, the locate_inner copyright holder has no
> right in it, because it's not a derivative work. How a program could be both
Now you've just asserted the conclusion. Originality is actually a
criteria for _being_ a derivative work - otherwise it's considered not
much different than a copy of the original (this is my non-lawyerly
understanding of the situation).
Lynn
Reply to: