Re: software patents

[rjack]

Richard Tobin wrote:
> In article <ttGdnQgUVfs7tMbYnZ2dnUVZ_s-dnZ2d@insightbb.com>,
> rjack  <rjack@ixwebhosting.com> wrote:
>
>
> > In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship 
> > extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, 
> > concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is 
> > described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
>
>
> > So any source code that implements the method or procedure of a software 
> > patent cannot be copyrighted.
>
>
> No.  The quoted paragraph says that copyright protection does not
> extend to the idea, procedure, ... itself. It doesn't say that it does
> not extend to the source code that implements it.
>
> So (in the absence of patents) you can copy the method but not the
> code.
>
> Of course in many other countries there are no software patents.
>
> -- Richard


>>So any source code that implements the method or procedure of a software
>>patent cannot be copyrighted.
>
>
> No.  The quoted paragraph says that copyright protection does not
> extend to the idea, procedure, ... itself. It doesn't say that it does
> not extend to the source code that implements it.


"For computer programs, “if the patentable process is embodied 
inextricably in the line-by-line instructions of the computer
program, [ ] then the process merges with the expression and precludes 
copyright protection.” Atari I, 975 F.2d at 839–40; see, e.g., 
PRG-Schultz Int’l, Inc. v. Kirix Corp., No. 03 C 1867, 2003 WL 22232771, 
at *4 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 22, 2003) (determining that copyright 
infringement claim failed because expression merged with process in 
computer software that performed auditing tasks)." Lexmark 
International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 
(6th Cir. 2004)