* Arnoud Engelfriet: > If the transformation from Fortran to C involves creative activity, > then the person who did the transformation may hold a copyright in > the C-version. Compare a translation from French to English of a > book. If it's just a literal translation, then the translator has > no copyright.
"Literal" in this context means simple word substition, not the usual sense of "literal translation". If the original work is copyrightable, the translation very likely is as well. > This does not affect the original copyright in the Fortran version. Agreed. > And the translator needs permission to create this derivative work. Indeed. > If the original program infringes on a patent, then the > transformed program will also infringe. Patents cover > functionality, not specific programs. It's possible that the patent refers to specific FORTRAN constructs, such as storage layout of arrays, or syntactic elements of the language. This may bite you in the other direction, too. In short, no general answer to this question is possible. Usually, it's not even possible if you are confronted with specific patents. 8-( -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
