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cc-licenses - Re: Copyright of derivative work released under a CC licence

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: "Greg London" <email AT greglondon.com>
  • To: "Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts" <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Copyright of derivative work released under a CC licence
  • Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 17:16:42 -0500 (EST)


Thomas said:
> And what about the fact that both (the supposed original author and the
> supposed derivative author) recognize that the second work is a
> derivation of the first?
>
> I mean, despite in reality it is or not, which is the value in this
> circumstance of a part's decalration?

I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.

If someone developed a functionally equivalent,
but completely independent, version of a piece of code,
I believe it is considered a separate work, regardless
of whether the second author once used the word "derivative"
to describe the work. There is "derivative" as in a strict
legal meaning, and then there is "derivative" as in someone
off the street thinking of derivative.

Just to avoid confusion, a person who creates a new work that
is functionally equivalent might want to avoid the word "derive", etc,
and use the word "inspired by" or something similar.

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Greg London wrote:
>
>>If you coded in a new language from scratch, using your own expression
>>to re-create the functionality of the original, then I think you can
>>rightfully claim to be the sole author.
>>
>>If your work is really a >translation< from one language to another,
>>(if you took his code and did a simple one-for-one translation
>>to the new language) then I think it qualifies as a derivative.
>>
>>I'm not as familiar with this stuff as others might be on the list.
>>Perhaps they can clarify if I'm anywhere near reality.
>>
>>Greg
>>
>>
>>Raffaello Tesi said:
>>
>>
>>>Greg London wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>If the code was redone from scratch, and it creates a webpage with a
>>>>similar layout and functionality of some proprietary code,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Yes, that's the situation. However, the original is released under a
>>>CC-NC licence
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>You'll probably want to avoid an identical copy of the layout of
>>>>the website it generates, though. I forget exactly how that sort of
>>>>thing qualifies for any sort of artistic protection...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Yes, and as a matter of fact in no way I can provide exactly the same
>>>characteristics due to the inner differences of the two programming
>>>languages, so that not all the features are reproducible.
>>>
>>>However, I want to stress out that the original author is fully aware
>>>that I have made those modification and agrees on that, as well as on
>>>the fact that I claim to be the author of the code (he is acknowledged
>>>as being the original designer).
>>>
>>>The main reason why I like to avoid to mention the original author as
>>>the author of the derivative work is because the responsibility of the
>>>code and its appearance is fully mine, and people should refer only to
>>>me should they find problems or malfunctions.
>>>
>>>Raffaello
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>cc-licenses mailing list
>>>cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
>>>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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>


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