Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Ken Arromdee <arromdee@rahul.net> writes:

> On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
> > 1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not
> > knowing the code to write code doing this for you and use that
> > code.
> 
> Does that actually work? The description is a derivative work of the
> code;

I don't think that's true. A derivative work is one that, in the
judge's opinion, re-uses part of the original creative expression. If
you express entirely in your own terms (modulo terms that have no
other reasonable alternative, such as API names) how the program
functions, you have not made a derivative work.

> the new code is a derivative work of the description

Again, by the same argument, I don't think that's correct.

-- 
 \      “I know the guy who writes all those bumper stickers. He hates |
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_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney