[OSGeo-Discuss] copyright question

[Chris Puttick]

----- "P Kishor" <punk.kish at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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?
> 
I believe in the US that is known as a "patent" ;)

Chris


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