Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pegasus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!pegasus!mzal From: mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) Newsgroups: net.emacs Subject: Re: Gnu Emacs & Copyright Laws Message-ID: <2432@pegasus.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Jul-85 03:18:29 EDT Article-I.D.: pegasus.2432 Posted: Thu Jul 18 03:18:29 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 19-Jul-85 02:02:33 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ Lines: 63 [ Insert your favorit clever quote here. ] Excerpt from: martillo@mit-athena.UUCP (Joaquim Martillo) Software copyright law is still relatively new and no one knows the commonsense measure. This lack of commonsense measure is being used to scare people. I would suggest 1 pages of unattributed code (of generic functions like strcpy) in a software project of at least moderate size is acceptable. In a similar project, complaining about 10% or less attributed code is silly. A tangential point here which might be of interest. When depositing code with the Copyright Office, one is required only to submit: "... one copy of identifying portions of the program ... 'identifying portions' shall mean either the first and last 25 pages of the program ... together with the page or equivalent unit containing the copyright notice, if any." [1] Also, use of generic functions does not necessarily constitute copyright violation or preclude copyrighting. After submiting a work for copyright, if the person submiting the forms has claimed exclusive authorship, a form letter which basically asks: [To what extent does the deposited program contain preexisting materials? Your application implies ...] "... that the program is entirely new and contains no SUBSTANTIAL (my emphasis) amount of material that has been previously registered or published or that has become standard usage for certain purposes. Although some programmers crate from scratch all parts of their programs, we understand that many draw from libraries or previously developed programs or routines in creating a new program." [1] A general comment: Many of the submissions "explaining" the law regarding copyrights, patents, and trade secret which I see on the net seem to have many misconceptions. (I do not mean to imply anything negative about the above excerpted article, as it expresses wishes, rather than claims things are facts.) It seems to me that some of these people should do some reading before they start writing. Herewith, some suggestions: [1] "A Software Law Primer", Frederic W. Neitzke, 1984, Van Nostrand Reinhold, page 52. [2] "Law and the Computer", Michael C. Gemignani, 1981, CBI Publishing. A quick quiz: If I put: /* great.c - Great C program * (C) 1984 by Michael Zaleski */ at the beginning of my great C program, have I preserved my legal copyright rights? The surprising answer is NO! See page 50 of [1]. -- "The Model Citizen" Mike^Z Zaleski@Rutgers [ allegra!, ihnp4! ] pegasus!mzal