Anthony DeRobertis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
