Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[Hyman Rosen]

On 8/20/2010 9:52 AM, RJack wrote:
> It seems you have just nullified the AFC test's merger doctrine.

You do not understand, or deliberately lie about, the AFC test.

Here is what the court said in Gates Rubber:
<http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11680749340692242274>
    2. Filtration ...
       (a) The Idea-Expression Dichotomy ...
           At the other end of the abstractions spectrum, source and
           object code, which are the literal elements of a program,
           will almost always be found to be protectable expression
           unless the doctrines of merger and scenes a faire come
           into play.

The AFC test is for determining when non-literal copying has taken
place. When literal code has been copied, copyright infringement has
occurred, with the very limited exceptions the court mentions.

Anti-GPL cranks don't understand law and they don't understand
English. While they are more to be pitied than hated, they are
always to be corrected.