RE: Copyrighting schemas, Hailstorm

[Jeff Lowery <jlowery@scenicsoft.com>]

Can I ask a more basic question here?

If I import a copyrighted schema, am I violating copyright? I'm not actually
duplicating the schema, so I can't see as I am. 

If it's a simple type:

What if I restrict one of the facets of the simple types of that schema? I'm
not really  copying anything, just restricting facets that may or may not
already be restricted in the (copyrighted) base type. Is the new type my
own? Can I copyright my restricted simple type?

If it's a complex type:

1) If I extend it, I'm only referencing he copyrighted original as a base,
and adding some new attributes and element definitions to it. Is the new
type my own? Can I copyright my extended type?

2) Ah, this is where it gets tricky: to restrict a complex type, I have to
reiterate all it's declarations, i.e., *copy* them. So it seems like I would
be in trouble restricting a copyrighted complex base type, since I can't do
it without copy large parts of the base type.

Bring in the XML Schema attorneys, I need a lawyer.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@simonstl.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 4:14 AM
> To: Henry S. Thompson
> Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: Re: Copyrighting schemas, Hailstorm
> 
> 
> On 01 Jun 2001 15:54:13 +0100, Henry S. Thompson wrote:
> > Shirky's worry doesn't fit with my understanding of copyright.  A
> > copyright is not a patent.  A work must clearly be derived _in its
> > expression_, not its substance, from the original, to be an 
> infringing
> > derivative.  Otherwise for example no songs about, well, almost
> > anything, would be publishable.
> 
> I guess my concern is whether the courts would interpret it 
> that way, or
> whether they would find that a compatible but not-created-by-Microsoft
> schema was a derived work.  I can see that going either way, and with
> current trends in copyright, I don't feel much certainty.
> 
> 
> 
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