Re: using GPL api to be used in a properietary software

[Martin Dickopp]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> Suppose that preexisting material (both program and library) is in 
> public domain by the time the program is run. So once again, who gets 
> the copyright on that "derivative work" and what expression (as in 
> literary works modulo AFC test) does it protect in that "derivative 
> work"? 
>
> ----
> 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 does not imply any exclusive right in the existing material. 
> The copyright in such work is independent of, and does not affect 
> or enlarge the scope duration ownership or subsistence of any 
> copyright protection in the preexisting material.
> ----

The second paragraph pretty much answers the question in the first.

I have no idea what you're aiming at. If the works of A and B are
combined to form a derivative work by an entity C, and the act of
creating the derivative work is not creative enough to be copyrightable
(as in the case of running a dynamically linked program, for example),
then C gains no copyright of the derivative work. But at the same time,
A and B don't lose their copyrights of the derivative work.

Martin