software licensing
Is it ok to open source translated closed source code?
<p>I received a library to use in a school project, which is closed source.</p>

<p>However, the project itself was programmed in a different language, so I had to translate the original library. Now I want to open source the project. Can I do so without consent from the creator of the original library?</p>

<p>Something to note is that the library in question is trivial in its nature: the given library is just another interface, consisting of one simple class, for a graphical library (Java Swing in this case).</p>

<p>This question is related to <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/8213/is-it-legal-to-rewrite-a-java-openjdk-library-into-another-programming-languag">Is it legal to rewrite a Java (OpenJDK) library into another programming language under GPL?</a> but I feel that that answer is inapplicable in this case.</p>

<p>You are creating a derivative work. You are only allowed to do this if the library comes with a license that allows this. </p>

<p>If you want to give your derivative work to anyone else, copying it is copyright infringement unless the license allows it. </p>

<p>Copying the derivative work and attaching a different license is most likely to be copyright infringement. And if people receive a copy with an open source license that is not justified and rely on it, that’s creating one unholy legal mess for everyone involved and can be massively more expensive than plain copyright infringement. </p>

<p>No license means you don’t have permission to do anything with it, not creating derivative work, not distributing it, and certainly not publish it with an open source license. </p>
