Re: Strawmen and Urban Legends

[Raugiel]

My understanding is that software is also copyrightable. Although the
focus with copyright infringement tends to be on making copies of
programs and selling them or using them for free, copyright protection
also gives the owner the exclusive right to create derrivative works.

Obviously a copyright is not a patent and these two forms of protection
are somewhat different, but are there any reasons to attempt to enforce
a copyright rather than, or in addition to, a patent for software
(besides the fact that copyright protection is life long...).


Roger Schlafly wrote:
> "Lee Hollaar" <hollaar@antitrust.cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> > But the one I cited is for "software" as we normally use the term
> > now -- something to control a computer -- and actually contains a
> > program implementing the method in 7090 assembly language (which
> > the printed wrong, putting a label on every line).
> > And it doesn't try to hide what it is.  Note the title:
> > "Text Matching ALGORITHM".
>
> That's right, but most of the arguments against the patentability of
> software would seem to apply to Morse Code. And yet the Morse
> Code patent is a famous patent that has been litigated, enforced,
> and held up in textbooks as an exemplary patent.
>
> This blog lists some other early software patents.
> http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2005/12/evolution-of-software-claims.html