Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-smoke.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!brl-smoke!ron From: ron@brl-smoke.ARPA (Ron Natalie ) Newsgroups: net.legal Subject: Re: does copyright cover public domain software? (long) Message-ID: <607@brl-smoke.ARPA> Date: Wed, 15-Jan-86 13:12:19 EST Article-I.D.: brl-smok.607 Posted: Wed Jan 15 13:12:19 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 06:16:20 EST References: <775@lasspvax.UUCP> <609@ttidcb> <668@cylixd> <607@harvard.UUCP> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 27 > This is not true. Copyright covers much more than the `bits'. For > instance, copyright covers the essential plot elements of a story and > the characters in a story. If you tried to put together a comic book > character called, say, Ultraman, who came from a distant planet, grew > up in a small town, had super-human powers, took on a secret identity > as a reporter, and was weakened by minerals from his home planet--in > other words, was a recognizable imitation of Superman--the copyright > owner could sue to protect its character under copyright laws. WRONG, wrong, wrong. The plot is not covered, nor is the "idea" behind a copyrighted work. What is protected is derivative works. What you have described is not a derivative work, most certainly because I could develop a completely original work based on those premises without even seeing any copyright materials. > > Similarly, if you took a best-selling novel and rewrote it top to > bottom but with the same characteristic and identifiable sequence of > events, you would be violating copyright. > Closer, this actually is developing a derivative work by just massaging what's in the present work. > Note that all of this is simplified and that I am not a lawyer. > Obviously.