4 ms·

No, if you write your own code it is _not_ a derived work of this. Copyright is not on the idea ("use this or that data structure"), only on the expression.

cellularmitosis 9y ago
If that were true, then why are "clean room implementations" a thing?
- vidarh 9y ago
  Because in a lot of cases the most logical expression of a given idea in tech will be quite similar, and in that case having clear documentation that shows that your implementation is an independent expression of a description may help prevent allegations that you just copied someone elses code and changed it a bit.
copperx 9y ago
That sounds reasonable, but why are Wine developers and the like discouraged from looking at the original source code they're trying to emulate?
- bonzini 9y ago
  Because that source code is not supposed to be publicly available (in the case of Wine and ReactOS).
  - saurik 9y ago
    That just means it was copied without permission... like this code, which is by default All Rights Reserved. For maybe more on-topic examples, though, note companies that are very careful about employees looking at open source code.
    - bonzini 9y ago
      While this code is "all rights reserved", you do have the right to view it according to the GitHub terms of service. This is not true for Windows. Alleging that Wine authors have participated in illegal sharing of source code would be a powerful accusation, and the authors clearly want to avoid it.
saurik 9y ago
No, if you read someone else's book and write your own with the same overall plot you are considered a derivative work, and people have absolutely lost copyright lawsuits over photographs with the same composition as an existing one that they were copying. The idea here is "memory allocator", and the "expression" is the order and structure used to implement that idea.
- angersock 9y ago
  [citation needed] What you propose is, on the face of it, absurd.

cellularmitosis 9y ago

If that were true, then why are "clean room implementations" a thing?

vidarh 9y ago
Because in a lot of cases the most logical expression of a given idea in tech will be quite similar, and in that case having clear documentation that shows that your implementation is an independent expression of a description may help prevent allegations that you just copied someone elses code and changed it a bit.

copperx 9y ago

That sounds reasonable, but why are Wine developers and the like discouraged from looking at the original source code they're trying to emulate?

bonzini 9y ago
Because that source code is not supposed to be publicly available (in the case of Wine and ReactOS).
- saurik 9y ago
  That just means it was copied without permission... like this code, which is by default All Rights Reserved. For maybe more on-topic examples, though, note companies that are very careful about employees looking at open source code.
  - bonzini 9y ago
    While this code is "all rights reserved", you do have the right to view it according to the GitHub terms of service. This is not true for Windows. Alleging that Wine authors have participated in illegal sharing of source code would be a powerful accusation, and the authors clearly want to avoid it.

saurik 9y ago

No, if you read someone else's book and write your own with the same overall plot you are considered a derivative work, and people have absolutely lost copyright lawsuits over photographs with the same composition as an existing one that they were copying. The idea here is "memory allocator", and the "expression" is the order and structure used to implement that idea.

angersock 9y ago
[citation needed] What you propose is, on the face of it, absurd.