🚀 go-pugleaf

Without being a lawyer this is how it worksa in the UK and most places.
There are several kinds of rights.


Patents protect inventions which must the not obvious to an expert in
the field, based on existing knowlegde. The content of all other
patents and the published literature is all defined as obvious. If I
later dream up the same idea from pure woodsmoke I still have to
licence the patent.

Design rights protect a specific design for a shorter period than
patents.

Copyright protects things I create from my own effort---if I write
exactly a novel word-for-word indentical with yours just based on
woodsmoke you can not claim breach of copyright. Copyright is
automatic. You need to do things if you want the appropiate proof to
sue someone for infringment.  Whether owned by a company or an
indivual it lasts a long time (until lots of years after the author's death
for individuals).


If you read the GPL the authors retain their copyright and merely
allow you the freedoms in the GPL. Most people find these conditions
acceptable. ("Shrink wrap" often tries to foist explicitly illegal
conditions, such as not reverse engineering the product---in Europe
with this an absolute right that can not be taken away by contract or
any other law).

Duncan (-: