Florian Weimer wrote: > * 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.
Agreed, and in the vast majority of the cases the translation is a creative work. A babelfish translation would be a literal translation. > > 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. Perhaps, but I've never seen a patent like that. Arnoud -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
