Re: Is database schema covered by the GPL?

[Hyman Rosen]

Rjack wrote:
> Are you perhaps claiming it forms a collective work?

Which it? The collection of separate files on a disk, or the program?

> 17 USC 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.

The collection of files on the disk is simply a collection of files,
because their assembly (generally) doesn't constitutes an original
work of authorship. The program is at least a collective work, and
requires extra permission because the contributed works are modified
in the process of being incorporated.