discuss: Open Methodology License

[David Johnson]

On Sunday 01 December 2002 02:45 pm, Pete Herzog wrote:

> 2.  The OML is similar to the GNU GPL with the following exceptions
> which pertain specifically to Methodologies, which are tools in their
> own right, intellectual property that is neither software nor
> documentation:

I'm not sure that a "methodology" is a copyrightable work. They should be more 
appropriately protected by trade secrets or patents.

USC 17, Sect. 102, lists literary, musical, dramatic, pictoral, graphic, and 
other works. But it does not list methodologies. It explicitely does not 
cover "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, 
principle, or discovery".

Although there may be merit in an open license for methodologies, especially 
since there are several companies willing to play free and loose with 
copyright laws, such a license is not in the scope of the OSI.

In my lay opinion...

-- 
David Johnson
___________________
http://www.usermode.org
pgp public key on website
--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3