[License-discuss] step by step interpretation of common permissive licenses

[Alex Rousskov]

On 01/27/2017 05:42 AM, David Woolley wrote:
> On 18/01/17 15:26, John Cowan wrote:
>> Pace David Woolley, it is not only the *changes* but the *entire*
>> derivative work of which you are the copyright owner.  Of course you
>> cannot prevent the making of other derivative works under license from
>> the original author.

> That doesn't seem to be the US Government position, at least during the
> last administration. To me <https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf>
> says that you only own the new bits

... unless you own the derivative work because it is a "compilations of
preexisting works"!

A typical large open source Software would be exactly that -- code,
documentation, and other works that are, and I quote, "selected,
coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a
whole constitutes a new work". The fact that some of the Software pieces
belong to the open source Project itself and some were obtained/licensed
from external sources is probably irrelevant here -- the Project can
still claim the copyright on the "compilation" or "collective work".

Alex.