Re: gens License Check - Non-free
Anthony DeRobertis <anthony@derobert.net> writes:
> On Jun 14, 2004, at 22:25, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure I buy the argument that WinFoo is a derivative work of
>> Windows. Surely WinFoo, shipped with Windows, is.
>
> Either it is or isn't. You create a derivative work (or don't create a
> derivative work) when you create a work.
Yes. And this picture of a Gnu is not a derivative work of Emacs.
But if I package it with Emacs as the Emacs icon, the combination
IconEmacs is a derivative work of Emacs -- and of my iconic gnu.
> Taping a copy of WinFoo to a copy of Windows doesn't change the
> copyright status of either work. I don't see how putting them on a CD
> together could, either.
Taping, no. But if I'm distributing WinFoo with wine, such that
they're installed and working together -- say, some ATM software and
an OS -- then either that ATM package is a compilation which includes
Windows, and so is a derivative work, or is not and is instead
including Wine and a derivative work of that.
> Being derivative is a property of a work, not a property of its
> distribution.
And it is that property of the combined work to which the FSF objects
-- no matter how tricky the instructions are about who does the combination.
>>> Anyway, why isn't Wine a derivative work of Windows if every program
>>> that uses the Windows API is?
>>
>> Wine shares nothing but facts -- the API -- with Windows. It is an
>> entirely different expression of the same idea. Programs linking to
>> libraries are, it is claimed, derivative because you need the library
>> included in there to make the combined work.
>
> I'm not quite sure how using the Windows API by calling it would make
> a derivative of Windows, while using it by implementing it
> wouldn't. It's the same API after all.
And it's the only implementation of that API -- and so uncreative and
not copyrightable. But if I give you the left half of Ulysses,
suggesting that you just, you know, find the other half somewhere,
the FSF suggests that *one* of us is commiting copyright infringement
by combining those halves.
--
Brian Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
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