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Re: Parsing output = derivative work? (was: RFS: gnetworktester)



Le dimanche 06 mars 2011 à 12:04 +0100, W. Martin Borgert a écrit : 
> (out of curiosity moved to debian-legal)
> 
> On 2011-03-05 23:46, Timo Juhani Lindfors wrote:
> > gnetworktester seems to parse the output of nmap and nmap upstream at
> > http://insecure.org/nmap/data/COPYING gives me the impression that
> > gnetworktester would thus be "derivative work".
> 
> IANAL, but since when parsing the output of another program
> constitutes a derivative work? 

The distinction between a derivative work and a separate work is not
based on technology but on functionality. 

Parsing the output of a program doesn’t make a derivative work. However,
if this parsing is vital for the operation of the application and makes
it useless without that program, what is the difference with dynamic
linking to a library? To a programmer, there might be one, but to a
court, there wouldn’t be any.

-- 
 .''`.      Josselin Mouette
: :' :
`. `'  “If you behave this way because you are blackmailed by someone,
  `-    […] I will see what I can do for you.”  -- Jörg Schilling

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