Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S965143AbXBSWs2 (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:48:28 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965151AbXBSWs1 (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:48:27 -0500 Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.162.232]:30757 "EHLO nz-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965143AbXBSWs1 (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:48:27 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=PTDm0GOCm7luaK6eYzGvWW5tPkbJfN9hTle5dwKkefoL9mmjvghhFjWOh+Mm2+7okz45g2bQRDgFg+pjWxIVucltP6nqOB5aHJ/5KOGkH97yIofKuh1RXKMjxJimUiLKkRPpyJSBJida+bNA0eJz8cXUa8k0qVkhCjXT6G8Cums= Message-ID: Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:48:24 -0800 From: "Michael K. Edwards" To: "Trent Waddington" Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers Cc: davids@webmaster.com, "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" , "Neil Brown" In-Reply-To: <3d57814d0702191426m2fc3c1c6had125a2db165befe@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <3d57814d0702171726l403c7812n19f2a226cba02e5d@mail.gmail.com> <3d57814d0702191255l2ef21f72rf7d999a62c4ec19a@mail.gmail.com> <3d57814d0702191426m2fc3c1c6had125a2db165befe@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2719 Lines: 53 On 2/19/07, Trent Waddington wrote: > On 2/20/07, Michael K. Edwards wrote: > > Bah. Show us a citation to treaty, statute, or case law, anywhere in > > the world, Mr. Consensus-Reality. > > It's a given.. are you seriously contending that if you combine two > copyright works you are not obliged to conform with the conditions of > the license on one of them when making a copy of the combined work? There is no legal meaning to "combining" two works of authorship under the Berne Convention or any national implementation thereof. If you "compile" or "collect" them, you're in one area of law, and if you create a work that "adapts" or "recasts" (or more generally "derives from") them, you're in another area of law. A non-exclusive license can authorize one of these categories of conduct and not the other, or can slice and dice the scope of the license along almost any axis of law or fact. But what it can't do is use the phrase "derivative work" passim -- a legal term of art invented by US judges and legislators to corral a class of infringing works and treat them differently from compilations -- and pretend that it also encompasses compilations (copyrightable and otherwise; there is an originality threshold here too) and use by reference. > If you are just arguing about the term, what term do you find more > appropriate? Compilation? If the amount of "adapting, translating, and recasting" done to the pre-existing works crosses a minimum threshold of creative expression (not "sweat of the brow", at least not under Feist), then you've created a derivative work. If the amount of "selecting and arranging" done to create a compilation crosses a similar threshold of creative expression, you've created a copyrightable compilation or collective work. If neither, then all you've done is copy and distribute. That's how the law works. IANAL, TINLA. > You guys seem to love pointless semantic arguments. Are you always in > violent agreement? Perhaps pointless if you were the sole audience, since you seem disinclined to evaluate the accuracy of your beliefs given novel information backed by extensive citations to the primary literature. Not pointless if it disabuses other people, with less deeply ingrained errors of understanding, of the notion that they can trust certain very heavily financially interested parties to tell them the truth about what the law says. Cheers, - Michael - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/