Re: what's the killer app for GNU/Linux systems?
On Tue, Dec 05, 2006 at 08:45:51PM -0600, John Hasler wrote:
> Doug writes:
> > The difficulty is, having seen the code, how do I accomplish the same
> > thing without using hints inherent in your code. Its like trying to
> > write a literature-research paper; having read a hundred articles, I have
> > to ensure that everything I say in my paper is either my own idea or is
> > properly referenced.
>
> Copyright law does not require that.
>
> > Therefore, I don't even want to read code that I'm not free to take ideas
> > from.
>
> You _are_ free to take ideas from copyrighted code. Copyright protects
> expression, not ideas.
>
Legal or not, you can still get into hot water. Just look at the
Davinchi Code court case where the authors of a scholary paper tried to
sue the authors of the book based on the use if _ideas_ in their paper.
It got thrown out and the publicity helped the book, but it was still
hot water.
Doug.
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