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From: nelson@sun2.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Software (and other kinds of) copying
Message-ID: <300@sun2.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 88 14:49:37 GMT
References: <229@wright.EDU> <9371@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> <2003@rti.UUCP>
Reply-To: nelson@sun2.ece.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson)
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 18

In article <2003@rti.UUCP> bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright) writes:
[...]
>Before the days of personal computers and software for them, I don't _ever_
>recall hearing _serious_ discussions about whether intellectual property
>(as in copyrights for books, records, etc;  or patents for objects/processes)
>_existed_ - though I do recall discussion about how long such things ought to
>run and what was covered by them.
[...]

It's hard to do useful work with books (write a list of numbers in a
book and put @sum(a1..a7) at the bottom of them :-), records, etc., and
it's similarly hard to copy them.  It's easy to do useful work with
computer software, and it's similarly easy to copy them. 

-- 
-russ
AT&T: (315)268-6591  BITNET: NELSON@CLUTX  Internet: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu
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