Re: GPL and other licences

[Barry Margolin]

In article <43E090DB.CFEC44EF@web.de>,
 Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> wrote:

> Barry Margolin wrote:
> [...]
> > But that's not really a good analogy.  Combining two programs is not
> > just making references, you actually merge parts of one program into a
> > copy of the other. 
> 
> What do you mean by "merge". They remain as two separate computer 
> programs (or parts thereof, if you like) under copyright law. No 
> protected expression was transformed/modified forming a derivative 
> work. Combined executable is just an aggregation of many computer 
> program works under copyright law. If you insist I can supply you 
> with maps that will allow you to extract all those distinct 
> components.

Who said "combined executable"?  I'm talking about copying parts of the 
source code of program A into a copy of program B, to create a new 
program C.  For instance, A, may be a newsreader, B a mail reader, and C 
would be a program that can read both mail and news, created by 
combining parts of A and B at the source code level.

An analogy in traditional media would be a collage, I think.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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