Re: TeX Licenses & teTeX (Was: Re: forwarded message from Jeff
On Tue, Aug 06, 2002 at 09:12:33AM -0600, Joe Moore wrote:
> I'm not sure I understand your representation of Frank's assertion there, or
> how it impacts copyrights. Is there some part of copyright law that
> restricts applicability for functional works?
Yes, copyright covers creative expression. If there's only one way to
express something, then it can't be creative. This has been used to
exempt for example interface definitions from copyright. Copyright is
not supposed to apply to ideas, only their expression.
(Sorry, no references from me -- ask a copyright lawyer :)
Brian has an interesting point here. If it's really true that it's not
possible to express the same functionality in more than one way, then
TeX macro files might not be copyrightable at all.
This is not likely to be settled without a court case, though, so it's
not a useful line of reasoning for us.
Richard Braakman
Reply to: