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From: amos@instable.UUCP (Amos Shapir)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Copyrighting trivial code
Message-ID: <679@instable.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Jan-87 03:04:44 EST
Article-I.D.: instable.679
Posted: Thu Jan 22 03:04:44 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Jan-87 21:40:36 EST
References: <2567@phri.UUCP> <2490@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Reply-To: amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir)
Organization: National Semiconductor (Israel) Ltd.
Lines: 16
Xref: mnetor misc.legal:681 comp.unix.wizards:687

This has been discussed before, when in one release of SysV the file
/bin/true, which used to be an empty command file, had been crowned
with a 16-line copyright notice (automatically by some distribution-
creating utility).

The final answer given (by a lawyer) was: if you write Macbeth without
knowing at the time that it had already been written before, you may
copyright it as your own, and anyone publishing or performing it
(*your* Macbeth, not Shakespeare's) should pay you royalties!
Of course, the longer the creation, the harder it is to prove you
created it, rather than copy it.
-- 
	Amos Shapir
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
(011-972) 52-522261  amos%nsta@nsc 34.48'E 32.10'N