Re: The worst that can happen to GPLed code

[Stefaan A Eeckels]

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 11:05:43 +0000 (UTC)
hollaar@faith.cs.utah.edu (Lee Hollaar) wrote:

> In article <20040618233441.641d1bae.tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu> Stefaan A
> Eeckels <tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu> writes:
> >I've indeed argued that dynamic linking does not make
> >the program a derivative work of the library, whereas
> >static linking does indeed produce a work that is a
> >derivative work of both the library and the original
> >code of the program. 
> 
> In United States copyright law, that is more property called
> a "compilation" -- " a work formed by the collection and assembling
> of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated,
> or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole
> constitutes an original work of authorship."

OK, that makes perfect sense. I've always been uncomfortable
with the idea that calling a library would make a program
a derivative work (especially because it could lead to all
programs being derivative works of the OS they run on).
 
> There are multiple copyrights in a compilation.  Any copyrights
> in the underlying works continue to exist, and there is a new
> copyright on the particular selection and arrangement of the
> compilation.  The permission of all copyright owners are then
> required for the reproduction or distribution of the compilation.

Does the copyright owners of the components of a 
compilation also have the right prevent the production
of a compilation, like they have for derivative works?

> That explains why a statically-linked program with a GPLed
> library requires it to be GPL (there is a compilation being
> distributed) but the same is not true for dynamic linking
> (no compilation is formed until after the distribution).

And why the FSF maintains that programs (at least in their
binary form) are derivative works of the libraries they
use (if there's only one version of such libraries).

Thanks for the clarification.

-- 
Stefaan
-- 
"What is stated clearly conceives easily."  -- Inspired sales droid