Re: Linux and GPLv2

[Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com>]

Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> writes:

>> > If you can find us a country whose laws make this illegal,
>> > this issue would be worth discussing.
>
> On Fri, Apr 01, 2005 at 06:15:34PM +0200, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> You are obviously convinced that using a command line interface can't
>> be protected by copyright.
>
> Right, in the sense that copyright is about tangible forms of creative
> expression, and it's not about functional mechanisms such as interfaces.

Mechanisms like header files, for instance.

> So, for example, this lack of copyright protection for command line
> interfaces doesn't mean that I can put some copyrighted story on the
> command line and make its copyright protection go away.

If writing that story on the command line is required for using the
program, I can think of three possibilities: 1) the author of the
program owns the copyright to the story, and lets you use the story in
this way, 2) the author of the program owns the copyright to the
story, doesn't let you use it, and effectively prevents you from using
the program at all, which would seem quite silly, and 3) the author
of the program doesn't own the copyright to the story, and has no
possibility of allowing you to use it, which is even sillier.

>>  Why, then, are you so persistent in insisting that other interfaces
>>  somehow are awarded such protection?
>
> That wasn't what I was trying to say.
>
> I was trying to say that just because something is a relevant interface
> in case A doesn't mean that that kind of interface is relevant in case B.

Who gets to decide what is relevant, and when?

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com