Code ported from one to another language - licensing [closed] - licensing

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I ported some code from C to C# and I also added some new features into the ported code. Original code is under MPL license.
This is original source code license terms:
/*
* file name
* Version .....
*
* Copyright (c) 2004-2012 by XXX YYY
*
* The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version
* 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
* the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
* http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/
*
* Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis,
* WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License
* for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the
* License.
*
* The Original Code is file.c
*
* The Initial Developer of the Original Code is XXX YYY.
*
* Portions created by XXX YYY are Copyright (C) 2004-2012
* XXX YYY. All Rights Reserved.
*
*/
Can i change the license for the ported code and include original source code license terms of the original source code this way:
//
// test.cs
//
// Author:
// "My Name" (my#email.com)
//
// Copyright (c) 2012 My Name
//
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
// a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
// "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
// without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
// distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
// permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
// the following conditions:
//
// The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
// included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
//
// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
// EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
// MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
// NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
// LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
// OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
// WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
//
// Parts of this source code are ported from C to C# by "My Name".
//
// The Original Code is file.c (http://original-source-code-link.com);
// and under Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/)
// The Initial Developer of the Original Code is XXX YYY (xxxyyy#email.com).

Answer 1

Porting some code is translating some code (compare that with translating a book of somebody else) and therefore subject to copyright. You are creating a derivative work.
And btw. never ever change author credits and copyright notes. That's a no-go, you are asking for trouble legally doing so. So copy the originally statement verbatim, do not cripple it.
Also you normally can't put a file under a MIT-like license while parts of it are under MPL AFAIK but IANAL JASD.
Why no just license the file under MPL as well? That is probabyl the best suggestion one can give you. For everything else you should go straight to your lawyer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Public_License
If you seriously want to put that part of the work that is your work under your license, you have to make very visible where your work is, and where the original work is.
I find it extremely hard for a port/translation to make that visible and I doubt that this is possible.
And that's only technically, because even if you are able to, this says nothing about license compatibility. Sure you need to have license compatibility as well.
So because of these two reasons, you should really consider to release it under the same license as MPL has copyleft.

Answer 2

A port is simply a modification of code.
You ARE in violation of section 3.1 and 3.4 of the MPL, which state respectively:
All distribution of Covered Software in Source Code Form, including any Modifications that You create or to which You contribute, must be under the terms of this License. You must inform recipients that the Source Code Form of the Covered Software is governed by the terms of this License, and how they can obtain a copy of this License. You may not attempt to alter or restrict the recipients’ rights in the Source Code Form.
...
You may not remove or alter the substance of any license notices (including copyright notices, patent notices, disclaimers of warranty, or limitations of liability) contained within the Source Code Form of the Covered Software, except that You may alter any license notices to the extent required to remedy known factual inaccuracies.
So the answer is no, your code must keep the terms of the MPL, and keep the original comment block.

Answer 3

By saying that you are porting the code you are clearly making a derivative work, in which case you need to comply to the original code's license.
However, it is possible to make a "clean room reimplementation" of an API, where you can use whatever license you wish. It basically means you print the Doxygen documentation, and code only based on this. If anybody questions your approach you will need to prove how you proceeded, ie. using SCM commit records, etc.
Usually it's not worth the case to do that, as it demands as much work as developing the original software.
Porting is only a fraction of the effort of developing; you don't have to design, and very little chance of introducing bugs. So why do you want to take all the credit ? I bet XXX YYY would be pissed off. I would !

Answer 4

From the MPL FAQ:
Q9: I want to distribute (outside my organization) MPL-licensed source
code that I have modified. What do I have to do?
To see the complete set of requirements, read the license. However,
generally:
You must inform the recipients that the source code is made available
to them under the terms of the MPL (Section 3.1), including any
Modifications (as defined in Section 1.10) that you have created.
You must make the grants described in Section 2 of the license.
You must respect the restrictions on removing or altering notices in
the source code (Section 3.4).
Seeing as you first ported the source and then altered it, you need permission of the original author for the port. Once you have that, you'd need to follow the guidelines in the answer above because you modified the code.
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