Re: Ian's DFSG2 would harm Debian and Free Software
Dale Scheetz wrote:
> It isn't clear to me that it does. I am still looking for some expert
> copyright lawyer to give me some guidance on these issues, but that hasn't
> been easy. I made a comment to an environmental lawyer I know, and his
> first response was,"Your can't copyright software, you must patent it.".
> I, of course, immediately threw up in his lap ;-)
That reminds me of the case a few months ago, about export of
encryption software, where the judge ruled that software was a device,
not speech.
If it's a device, then obviously you can't copyright it, but must
patent it :-)
I don't know where that case went, but I hope it ends up with a
definite decision either way. If software is ruled to be speech,
then that can be used as a good precedent to disallow software patents.
Richard Braakman
Reply to: