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Is Wizard-Code a Derived Work?

Posted by Cliff on from the careful-with-code-generators dept.

worldcitizen asks: "Now, with all the noise from the SCO case regarding copyrights, what constitutes a derivative work and who owns what, a question started creeping up: What would happen if Microsoft starts claiming copyright infringement or other Intellectual Property claims in the wizard-inserted code that Visual C++ generates? Would it be possible that even the simplest 'Hello, world' is tainted? Copyrights don't even require uniform enforcement. Could they selectively enforce it on Free Software projects for Windows that have used VC++ for development? Could they license it in such a way that makes it illegal to use Visual C++ for Free Software? Should this be a wake-up call to never use Visual C++ unless you have a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft (obviously not for Free Software projects)?"

5 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Read the licensing terms by iangoldby · · Score: 3, Informative

    Usually, there are terms and conditions attached to the redistribution of code that came with the development environment, and that almost certainly includes code generated by wizards and so on.

    For example, the MSVC license tells you exactly which DLLs you can redistribute, and example code usually has a statement at the top. Wizard-generated code surely won't be any different.

  2. Read the license. by Tomun · · Score: 2, Informative

    Usually the software's license will exempt generated code but you will need to read it to check.
    In fact you should read the license before you pay for the software and certainly before you commit to using it.

  3. Re:Code Wizards suck anyway. by Electrum · · Score: 4, Informative

    Code wizards are way more trouble than they're worth anyway. Especially with GUI designers, the code they generate is totally un-maintainable.

    You've obviously never used Borland Delphi or C++Builder. Those products are an excellent example of a GUI builder / RAD done correctly. They don't screw up if you change the code and don't make the code unmaintainable. I can't imagine a more productive environment for GUI development.

  4. no it doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxbegthe.htm l

  5. Re:How? by MisterFancypants · · Score: 3, Informative

    Generally the only DLLs you'd use with Visual Studio that you can't redistribute legally are the debug versions of all the libraries, and Microsoft prohibits distribution of those mainly to stop developers from shooting their own feet off.