Re: algorithm copyright? what's that?
Please don't top-post.
"Ryan R. Matt" <swimmerooo@yahoo.com> writes:
> Patents are totally separate from Copyrights. [...]
Yes.
> Copyrights don't have the same requirements and therefore you can
> copyright a software algorithm.
No. Copyright applies only to a *specific, copyable expression* of an
idea, not the idea itself. Any number of people can express the same
algorithm in different ways, and when they commit those expressions to
some tangible form such as a program, every one of them is
copyrightable separately.
The abstract algorithm remains untouched by this. Provided you don't
derive your work from someone else's specific copyrighted expression,
you can re-express the algorithm in your own way and gain your own
copyright in the expression, without being affected by the other
implementors' copyrights.
--
\ "A man may be a fool and not know it -- but not if he is |
`\ married." -- Henry L. Mencken |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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