🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
> In article <79@euteal.ele.tue.nl> mart@ele.tue.nl (Mart van Stiphout) writes:
>>  I really don't see why software is something entirely different
>>  than hardware, literature, music, etc.
> 
> It is not different. But suppose that Hugo Gernsback had the "look and feel"
> copyright on Science Fiction: there would be no Asimov, no Clarke, no
> Heinlein and so on... 
NOOOO! The 'look and feel' copyright can never prevent existence of other
pieces of software, just the way how they are presented. There are
hundreds of bitmapped window managers around, but only the layout of
the actual user interface (what the user sees on the screen) is
copyrightable for one specific such layout. (There was by the way an
attempt of a company which had acquired the 'bitmapped display' patent, to
get money from ALL makers of bitmapped displays and windowing software. I never heard
how they succeeded if at all).By the way the same is true for books, Elsevier
(I think) has the copywright on talking books, so except for the series
'De jaren [50|60|70|80] you want see any of them around.To come back to
your example: if Gernsback had chosen to sell his books lets say cut out in
the form of a rocket and had copywrighted this layout, you could still
write millions of SF books,but couldn't have them sold in just that outside
appearance. In real life very small changes to the copywrighted stuff are
mostly sufficient to fool the courts.
fmr@cwi.nl
-- 
It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck?
Maintainer's Motto:
	If we can't fix it, it ain't broke.
These opinions are solely mine and in no way reflect those of my employer.