Is inherited class a derivative work?

John Cowan cowan at mercury.ccil.org
Sun Oct 14 05:20:44 UTC 2001


David Johnson scripsit:

> A derivative work must contain at least portions of the original work. 

I know what you mean, but that's poorly worded.  Translations, for example,
don't contain any literal portion of the original, but are paradigm cases
of derivative works.

> Dependency alone does not constitute derivation.

Just so.  A classic instance is the C Answer Book, which contains answers
to the problems in K&R.  Although it absolutely depends on K&R for its
meaning, it is a completely independent work from the copyright standpoint.

-- 
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan at ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan
--
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