Consider an API whose normative specification is maintained in an XML
file describing enum values, entrypoints, etc. The XML file is covered
under Apache 2.0. I write a python script to parse that XML and emit a
C header describing that API. What license options do I have for that
header?
My amateur reading of Apache 2.0 Section 4 (Redistribution) is that I
can choose whatever I want for the generated header. The last paragraph
in particular:
> You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
> may provide additional or different license terms and conditions for
> use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or for any
> such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use, reproduction,
> and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with the conditions
> stated in this License.
The header is the Derivative Work, and I need not distribute the source
XML at all. On the other hand, my amateur reading of the definition of
"Derivative Work" in Apache 2.0:
> "Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
> form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
> editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other
> modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship.
> For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works shall not include
> works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to
> the interfaces of, the Work and Derivative Works thereof.
Suggests that such a header file would not count as a Derivative Work;
I'm not sure what it would count as, but as it's merely a binding to
the interfaces defined by the Work...
- ajax