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From: garry@lasspvax.UUCP (Garry Wiegand)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: does copyright cover public domain software? (long)
Message-ID: <775@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Jan-86 03:59:41 EST
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.775
Posted: Sat Jan 11 03:59:41 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jan-86 04:29:45 EST
Reply-To: garry%geology@cu-arpa.cornell.edu.arpa
Organization: Cornell Engineering && Flying Moose Graphics
Lines: 44

In a recent article charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) wrote:
>I'll admit right away that I'm not a lawyer.  I am a writer, though,...
>
>- Words of Bill Svirsky ->If I write my
>>own version of a best-selling program that looks and acts
>>exactly as the original, but I give mine away for free, can I
>>be sued?  
>
>I'd almost guarantee that you would be.  When you get to court, you...

I agree, you probably would be. But that ain't the way the system is
supposed to work. A "copyright" is the right to control what copies
(or elementary translations) of a sequence of words, a picture, or a
sequence of bits (as in a ROM) are made, and by who. 

Copying words IS SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT than copying *ideas*,
including the idea of what a computer program *does* when inserted
into the appropriate hardware. A sequence of algorithmic actions (ie,
a "method of production", in Patent terms) does *not* qualify as a
"sequence of words, a picture, or a sequence of bits". 

Please note that the universe of ideas contains, and is much larger
than, the universe of words. Our public policy is that it is the
Patent Office which is to regulate and restrict the flow of ideas,
and that many many qualifications will be needed before such a
restriction can be granted unto you. 

Why does this simple idea cause so much confusion on the net? 

(I.e., "how many lawyers and vice presidents/finance can dance on 
the head of a pin?") 

I admit the rules deserve to be spelled out more clearly, and anti-
terrorist methods invoked, so that we don't have to run for fear of
the unfair exercise of the law and the courtroom. 


garry wiegand 
garry@lasspvax.tn.cornell.edu 
Flying Moose Software et al 


[By my definition, any *picture on a terminal screen* is fair game
for copyrighting. Don't know that anyone's tried it yet...]