[OSGeo-Discuss] copyright question

[P Kishor]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 1:52 PM, Bart van den Eijnden (OSGIS)
<bartvde at osgis.nl> wrote:
> So if the project had been formed, but does not contain any source code as
> yet it's possible? Or am I misinterpreting your words?

Well, it is entirely possible that I am misinterpreting your words. I
am not sure what is a "project" as different from the code? How can
there be a project if there is no code? Besides, a project is not
copyrighted... it is the code that is copyrighted, and that is done by
considering software source code as a literary work actually.

If "projects" without code could be copyrighted then every joe the
plumber would dream up of all kinds of fanciful projects that only
exist in ones mind, and copyright them. Then everyone else would be
shut out.

A clever lawyer could also argue that the "project" is an idea, while
the code is the expression of that idea. Since ideas can't be
copyrighted, there you go. Consider this example -- I have this
wonderful idea that given an address, the computer should be able to
figure out the lat/lon. I call this "project" by the name "geocoding"
and copyright it even though I haven't written a lick of code. Now
everyone else is shut out from writing computer programs to do
geocoding. That wouldn't be nice, would it?

>
> Best regards,
> Bart
>
> P Kishor wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Bart van den Eijnden (OSGIS)
>> <bartvde at osgis.nl> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi list,
>>>
>>> today I was in a meeting about GeoExt, and the following question came
>>> up:
>>>
>>> "Is it possible for OsGeo to take copyright for a project which yet has
>>> to
>>> form and has not passed incubation as such?"
>>>
>>
>> Just looking at the above question, the answer would be "no" in the
>> US. In the US, per  Title 17, Section 102, "original works of
>> authorship" have to be "fixed in any tangible medium of expression"
>> before they can acquire copyright protection. Since the said project
>> hasn't yet been formed, it can't be protected.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> A commercial company has expressed issues contributing if the copyright
>>> is
>>> not owned by a trustworthy independent organization such as OsGeo.
>>>
>>> Is anybody able to answer this? TIA.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Bart
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bart van den Eijnden
>>> OSGIS, Open Source GIS
>>> bartvde at osgis.nl
>>> http://www.osgis.nl
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Bart van den Eijnden
> OSGIS, Open Source GIS
> bartvde at osgis.nl
> http://www.osgis.nl
>
>



-- 
Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org/
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) http://www.osgeo.org/