Copyrights and Secrets

Aflatoon Aflatooni aaflatooni at yasna.com
Thu Feb 28 23:27:47 UTC 2002


I am not sure if it can be completely enforced. Because when you look at it,
codes can be changed to look different, but the underlying logic is copied.
Also inversely, two codes can look very similar that have been written by
two different individuals (there are only so many ways to skin a cat).

A copyright on the source code would have to cover issues like degrees of
change, and I am not sure if I personally would like that either.


Aflatoon
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Ken Brown [mailto:kenbrown at erols.com]
  Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 12:16 PM
  To: license-discuss at opensource.org
  Subject: Copyrights and Secrets




  I just left an interesting discussion today on the Hill regarding the
Microsoft settlement.  They were discussing the request of Microsoft’s
Windows source code by.  The following discussion points were of interest to
me: 1)  does a copyright of a software cover its underlying source code?  2)
if the source code is published, is it protected from being copied if it is
copyrighted? 3)  if one views codes without permission and uses it, has that
person violated a copyright? 4) does copyright law correctly deal with
software or should it be updated to properly deal with these issues and
other open source concerns?  5)  is a trade secret different from a source
code secret in the sense that the software is published and the trade secret
is not?



  ken brown

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