Out on HF and heard nobody, but didn't call CQ? Nobody heard you either. 73 de N7GH
Les Morgan wrote:without having actual code segments being the same copyright infringement is difficult to prove.
"Il y a peu de choses qui me soient impossibles..."
Stevens Miller wrote:
Les Morgan wrote:without having actual code segments being the same copyright infringement is difficult to prove.
Well, try this: MB creates a board game called, "Word Nerds." It involves filling in squares on the board with a finite set of tiles that have letters on them. The letters must intersect other letters (except in the very first word) like in a crossword puzzle, and they must meet a nerdy definition provided from a stack of cards with one nerdy definition on each card. Note that Word Nerds is not played on a computer, has no software component, and is protected by copyright law. If P writes a program that displays a Word Nerds board, supplies nerdy definitions that P made up (none of which are copied from the cards in Word Nerds), and allows the players to fill in words from a finite collection of letters, enforcing the requirement that the letters must intersect other letters (except in the very first word) like in a crossword puzzle, has P infringed on MB's copyrights in Word Nerds? I would say that P has certainly done so, even tough P's program has no actual code segments being the same as MB has, since MB never wrote any code.
My point being that copyright law protects much more than just code when it is applied to software.
Out on HF and heard nobody, but didn't call CQ? Nobody heard you either. 73 de N7GH
Les Morgan wrote:Not necessarily. If P were able to come up with the game idea and implementation on P's own, then there in reality is no copyright infringement.
... perhaps P's family invented the game centuries ago and it is recorded for posterity in his great great grandmother's journal, then MB would end up paying P royalties...
As for the original post, I still have to fall back on my statement: "without having actual code segments being the same copyright infringement is difficult to prove."
If you want to see an interesting case of patent right, then look up the invention of the delayed wipers for automobiles.
"Il y a peu de choses qui me soient impossibles..."