On Thursday 16 January 2003 08:37 am, Brian Behlendorf wrote: > Can someone clear up the difference between "mere aggregation" and a > "collective work"? Is Red Hat Linux a "collective work" or a "mere > aggregation" of many different software packages, some of them GPL, > some under other open source licenses, some of them not?
>From Title 17, Section 101 - Definitions: 'A ''collective work'' is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole.' 'A ''compilation'' is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term ''compilation'' includes collective works.' I can find no references to "aggregation" except in an unrelated area dealing with transmissions. I suspect the term is used in the GPL as a synonym for "collective work". -- David Johnson ___________________ http://www.usermode.org pgp public key on website -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
