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Re: Question about "Conditions for Using Bison" in Bison 2.0 documentat


From: Hans Aberg
Subject: Re: Question about "Conditions for Using Bison" in Bison 2.0 documentation
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 20:33:10 +0100
User-agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.0.6

At 15:11 -0800 2005/03/10, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> I don't know what the default status is of works produced by X's use
>> of Y's copyrighted programs, but I rather suspect that such products
>> belong to X
>
>It depends on whether the produced works are "derivative works" of Y's
>copyrighted programs.  For many programs (e.g., "cat") it's quite
>clear that the program's output is not a derivative work of the
>program.
>
>But in the case of Yacc, it's pretty clear that the C output file is a
>derivative work of both the Yacc template file and the user's source
>file.  So, legally speaking, the user and Sun both have copyright
>interest in the C output file, and you need permission from both
>parties before you can redistribute that file.

This is interesting: First it means that it is wrong for Yacc/Bison to put a
single copyright on the output file. But also, second, it is a tricky
question what copyrighted material one can use for free. I believe that news
reporting can include copyrighted quotes and such, without having to oblige
to the original copyright. Copyright is essentially a business protection
law, and freedom of speech laws have precedence.

  Hans Aberg






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