Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment
* Colin Turner <ct@piglets.com> [090207 14:43]:
> The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
> available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
> have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
> to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
> it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
> different variable names.
>
> Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
> (counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and
1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not knowing the
code to write code doing this for you and use that code.
2) Do as in 1) but describe it to yourself. You should be really sure
you'd write it that way even without knowing the code...
3) check if it is really trivial enough to not be protected by copyright
laws. Note that most usual conditions to be elegible for copyright are
waved for computer programs. (As almost every computer program would
fail the non-triviality conditions for written texts, and compiled
binaries the condition to be man-made).
I guess checking this is quite complicated, as the different countries
have different rules.
The code really looks simply, but I do not know if any judge would agree
that code that comes with multiple author information, contact
information and comments can be deemed so trivial that it is without
copyright. (so better ask some lawyer to be sure if you want to go this
way).
> losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.
What happens if javascript is disabled? Please make sure the application
also works then (or at the very minimum, fails gracefully).
Hochachtungsvoll,
Bernhard R. Link
--
"Never contain programs so few bugs, as when no debugging tools are available!"
Niklaus Wirth
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