In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Joseph S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Can I inspect source code in one language (PHP in particular, with all > its $'s, ->'s, and =>'s ) and make a program in VB.Net (with > namespaces, dots(.), and OOP framework) which does roughly the same > thing? If your code is basically a direct translation from one language to another, it would presumably be considered a derived work, much like a translation of a book from English to French. Copyright gives the original author control over the creation of derived works as well as verbatim copies. The more abstract you make the translation, the less likely it is to be considered a derived work. For instance, changing from a traditional program design to OO framework would presumably result in a program very unlike the original in overall organization. However, it's likely that many of the methods in the OO version will be straightforward translations of functions in the original, so you could still run into problems there. Any time you've had access to the original source code, and then produce something that behaves similarly, there's a good chance that you'll be accused of copying. This is why "clean room" procedures have been developed -- to document clearly that the authors of the new code did so without any chance of direct copying. -- Barry Margolin, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
