Does "modification" include translation to another HLL?

[John Cowan]

Kenny Tilton wrote:


> Now suppose I have developed a useful hack in language X, which could
> readily be translated into language Z. Can someone else make that
> translation and claim ownwership of that software?

Modification definitely includes translation.  If you want to
translate a novel from Portuguese to Hindi, you need a license from
the copyright owner, and just so for translating a program from
Fortran to Perl.

But if I just *read* your Fortran program, and then invent my own
Perl program that does the same thing, it is not a derivative work;
it can even have features in common with the original, if those features
are the only (or the only straightforward) way to accomplish the
purpose, just as two different implementations of the same API
can contain the same code if it's the obvious code.

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