Assistance/advice in choosing a license for POV-Ray 4.0

[Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.]

"...So the question is - does dynamic linking result in a derivative work ?
It seems to me that the answer must be 'no'."

"Must be no..." does not quite acknowledge that the answer is not 
well-settled (at least in the United States).   

We should be careful to acknowledge that your question potentially covers 
two distinct works: the modification and the program generated by linking.  
Regarding the former, attention to the linking issue is an unnecessary 
distraction.  

If a contributer creates an original work on the basis of rather trivial 
use of the covered open source program, it probably will be irrelevant how 
this is done (that is, whether by static or dynamic linking) as far as the 
open source licensor's copyright interests are concerned. 

 Regarding the latter - - the program generated by dynamic  linking - - I 
agree that it is unlikely that the result will be a derivative work, but 
the answer depends upon a fact-intensive analysis of what is created by the 
linking.

For reference: take a look at a couple of cases like  Lewis Galoob Toys v. 
Nintendo and/or Microstar v. Formgen. 

- Rod
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Rod Dixon
www.cyberspaces.org