Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[Hyman Rosen]

On 8/20/2010 7:10 AM, RJack wrote:
> On 8/20/2010 2:15 AM, David Kastrup wrote:
> > Sure. But the form in which it is described is, individually,
> > copyrightable material.
>
> Not in the *context* of patent rights. GNUtians hate the word
> *context* and always pretend it doesn't exist.

This is false. There is no such thing as "copyright in the context
of patent rights." Copyright law does not mention the word "context".
It is only in your fevered imagination that software implementing a
patented process is ineligible for copyright. Unfortunately for you,
the law directly contradicts you.

17 USC 102(b) says
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000102----000-.html>
    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.

and anyone except for an anti-GPL crank, including many courts,
read the straightforward English and understand that it means
first, copyright exists in the work, and second, copyright does
not prevent others from using the ideas embodied in that work.

The only exception is when the described process is so precise
that the implementation is inextricably bound to the idea. That
is essentially never.