Re: [ROFL] GCC's GPLv3 "Updated License Exception"

[Rjack]

Rjack wrote:
> Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote:
> > > Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > > > Note that the copyright of executable files is invariably
> > > > held to be held by those who have copyright of the source
> > > > files, not those who wrote the compiler.
> >
> > > An interesting aside is that the source and executable forms
> > > of a computer program do not have separate copyrights. They
> > > are considered to be the same work for copyright purposes.
>
> They are *not* considered to be the same work for copyright 
> purposes. One form is considered to be a "translation" of the
> other. That makes one a *derivative* work of the other under US
> law:
>
> 17 USC 101 Definitions.
>
> 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”.

I have argued that a compiler adds no creative element to qualify
the "translation" because of its fixed algorithms but this is a
legally unsupported *conjecture*. The subject of derivative works
concerning computer source code has almost no modern case law to
assist in answering legal questions of this nature.


> > That sounds, .... er complicated!  You mean, if you validly
> > hold an executable copy of a (non-free) program, and you
> > "somehow" get hold of the source for it, then you're entitled
> > to keep that source code.
> >
> > Are you sure, on this one?  I mean, this doesn't apply to book
> >  translation.  If a publisher is authorised to publish an
> > edition of a book written in English, that wouldn't give him
> > any rights to publish somebody else's German translation.
> >
> > Sorry, I can't work this out!