Re: Public Domain Document Encoding.

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Article #1288

#1288

From: Joe Buck
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 00:00

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Clancy Dalebout  <fleegix@shell2.aracnet.com> wrote:
>Ah!  You speak of Jim Breen and his Kdict.  I do believe Microsoft does do
>just that, not to mention all the encoding methods like BIG5, KO8R, JIS, etc.
>I do not believe that these are GPL'd, but rather public domain.
>
>Wouldn't it be a rush if they *were* under the GPL?  Microsoft would
>either have to make their operatiny systems free (and open source),
>or for all practical purposes stop doing localizations.

Copyright doesn't let you protect encoding methods, or (in the US)
bitmaps for fonts, or protocols, etc.  Microsoft can duplicate any
GPL functionality by hiring two teams: the first studies the GPLed
software and writes up a report of what it does.  The second
implements a new program from the report, without ever looking at
the GPLed source.  The original copyright owner has no right to object
if this is done right (paranoid companies have all communication
between the two teams go through a lawyer).

-- 
-- Joe Buck
   work: jbuck@synopsys.com, otherwise jbuck@welsh-buck.org or jbuck@best.com
http://www.welsh-buck.org/

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From: jbuck@best.com (Joe Buck)
Subject: Re: Public Domain Document Encoding.
Date: 1998/10/07
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