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From: brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Should software ideas be protected?
Message-ID: <497:Apr1423:48:4790@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 14 Apr 90 23:48:47 GMT
References: <1093@goofy.UUCP> <14867@s.ms.uky.edu> <1990Apr8.003410.9841@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <2634@psueea.UUCP> <7510@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> <1870@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Reply-To: brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Distribution: usa
Organization: IR
Lines: 9
X-Original-Subject: Re: Software Copyright Law

In article <1870@cod.NOSC.MIL> sampson@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (Charles H. Sampson) writes:
> For example, sorting is an idea, while quicksort and
> heapsort are two ways of expressing that idea in a computer program.

Ummm, no. Quicksort is a method of sorting; but it's neither tangible,
nor an expression of the idea of sorting, nor of a particular fixed form,
nor patentable, nor copyrightable. Thank God.

---Dan