GPL with the Classpath exception - clarification needed

[Alon von Bismark]

2009/3/27 John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>:
> Alon von Bismark scripsit:
>
>> Please note in advance that a derivative work, under 17 U.S.C 103,
>> encompassed only "editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or
>> other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original work of
>> authorship"
>
> Those words appear not in § 103 but in § 101.  Furthermore, you quote
> them as if they constituted a definition rather than an example, and
> your use of "only" is downright misleading, to say nothing worse.
>
> The full text of the definition is:
>
>        A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or more preexisting
>        works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization,
>        fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording,
>        art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form
>        in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work
>        consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations,
>        or other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original
>        work of authorship, is a "derivative work".
>
> Removing elements that are merely exemplary, we get:
>
>        A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or more preexisting
>        works [in] any form in which a work may be recast, transformed,
>        or adapted.
>
> That is extremely general; indeed, too general to be taken literally.
>
>> meaning that the preexisting material remains unaffected by the
>> copyright in a derivative work.
>
> If by that you mean that the copyright on the derivative work is
> independent of the copyright on the original work, provided the derivative
> work was made under license, you are correct.
>
> If you mean that the copyright of the derivative work extends only to
> the differences between it and the original, you are mistaken.
>
> If you mean something else, I cannot conceive of what it is.

I meant § 103 in the sense of

"The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the
material contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from
the preexisting material employed in the work"

and, by example, from § 101, that a derivative work encompasses ONLY

"editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other
modifications, which, AS A WHOLE, represent an original work of
authorship"

in the sense that it is not affecting the preexisting material.

Going back to your claim that

"executable as a whole is a derivative work"

How come that "executable AS A WHOLE is a derivative work"?

-alvbi

--
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