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From: jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Copyrighting trivial code
Message-ID: <16985@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Wed, 21-Jan-87 14:59:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.16985
Posted: Wed Jan 21 14:59:18 1987
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Roy Smith <roy@phri.UUCP> asks:

	The obvious question is whether the copyright notice means
	anything.  Can one really copyright something which is so
	straightforward, trivial, and obvious?

#include <sys/disclaim.h>

It was put there as part of the effort to "clean up" all the code in
the 4BSD release which included putting copyright notices and SCCS info
on everything, regardless of size.  I think any lawyer would have a
difficult time doing anything about you using that one-line of code,
but it would be harder for CSRG to make the determination of what they
should or should not have copyrighted, due to size ...

/jordan