On 1/24/07, Jay R. Ashworth <jra(a)baylink.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 09:00:22PM +0200, Ilmari
Karonen wrote:
In particular, you seem to be confused about what
[[derivative work]]
actually means. Go ahead, look it up in Wikipedia -- that page explains
it better than I could.
# A "derivative work," that is, a work that is based on (or derived
# from) one or more already existing works, is copyrightable if it
# includes what the copyright law calls an "original work of
# authorship." Derivative works, also known as "new versions," include
# such works as translations, musical arrangements, dramatizations,
# fictionalizations, art reproductions, and condensations. Any work in
# which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other
# modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship
# is a "derivative work" or "new version."
To use my example, above, my taking a photograph of an artist posing
next to his painting does *not*, to me, seem to meet the description
there, quoted from the statute, of a derivative work, as it's not
*based* on the original painting: he could have been standing next to
*anything*.
Whether or not it's a derivative work is largely irrelevant, because a
photograph of a painting definitely *is* a copy.
Anthony