Is inherited class a derivative work?

[William Uther]

Hi,
  I lurk on the list.  I've been skimming the conversation.  I thought I'd 
try an analogy.  Not sure if this will help or not.  I am not a lawyer, nor 
do I really know copyright law very well.  Feel free to ignore :).

  Imagine person A creates a picture.  Person B comes along and makes an 
overlay that when placed over the picture makes a 'new, improved' picture 
by covering some bits of the original.

  If you distribute *just the overlay* is this a derived work?  I'm going 
to assume for the sake of argument that it isn't.

  If you distribute the overlay and a copy of the original painting 
(appropriately licensed) together, is *this* a derived work?

  One could argue that in the second case the overlay is merely USING the 
original picture, and that the original picture can be copied because of 
its license.  I suspect that a court would rule that you have a derived 
work here.

later,

\x/ill          :-}

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