[License-review] For Approval: Scripting Free Software License, Version 1.3.6 (S-FSL v1.3.6)

[Chuck Swiger]

On Nov 12, 2013, at 5:09 AM, Elmar Stellnberger <estellnb at elstel.org> wrote:
>> "Derived works" in copyright (and OSD) corresponds roughly to:
>> a) maybe certain "patches", but definitely NOT all;
>> b) "branches", the way your text uses the term, likely.
> 
> Yes, everything that is derived from an initial work is a derived work.

This assumption is not always correct, because not all components of the original work are protectable by copyright.

In particular, software APIs are generally not protectable-- c.f. Computer Associates v. Altai-- which is why one can swap out GNU readline (originally written by Brian Fox in 1994) for a BSD-licensed readline library (written by Jaromir Dolecek for NetBSD in 1997) or the libedit library (written by Christos Zoulas for 4.4BSD back in 1992).

A program which can use GNU readline (or BSD readline, or even no readline library at all) does not become a derivative work of the readline library it links against.

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck