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;

Here's an analogy that I think demonstrates why your assertion isn't
so:

Person A has written a novel. Person B can write an encyclopedia
article that describes in detail (but in their own words) that book.
Person A's copyright is not infringed because person B did not make a
derivative work of the book.

Likewise, I don't think a prose description of the operation of a
program is thereby a derivative work of the program.

-- 
 \       “If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; |
  `\     but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.” —Donald |
_o__)                                             Robert Perry Marquis |
Ben Finney