Who holds the copyright on code generated by Microsof&#39;t&#39;s .NET Framework?
<p>Can software developers claim the copyright of code that was generated by the framework, which may not be created/owned by the developer?</p>

<p>For instance, .NET is a software framework made by Microsoft, and it typically generates a lot of code to start a project. Sometimes a developer needs to modify the generated code to better fits his/her needs. Can the developer claim copyright of the code that was not modified by him/her? Does the developer only own the copyright of the code that was actually written/modified by him/her? Does Microsoft have the copyright of generated code?</p>

<p>Yes Microsoft owns the copyright.  .NET does come with licensing terms that allow you to use and modify it. I don't know how far those terms go, but they do allow people to use, modify and sell/profit from it without needing to compensate Microsoft. </p>

<p>It would then be fair to say that anything you do would be a derivative piece of work which is entitled to its own copyright, providing the license allowed the creation in the first place.</p>

<p>The short, but not particularly helpful, answer is this: The generated code is not a new work, but it does contain elements of prior works. The authors of any sufficient protectable expression from prior works that appears in the generated code holds copyright to the generated code and their permission is required to distribute or copy that code beyond what is necessary for ordinary use.</p>

<p>Code generation is not a creative process. It just mechanically takes elements of different works and stitches them together. Legally, it's no different from stapling. If I staple a DVD of my wedding to a DVD of The Phantom Menace, the final work is not a new work, merely a compilation. But you cannot copy or distribute it without permission of the copyright holders of both DVDs.</p>

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