Oh Cromm, not again!

Story: New trial means Unix ownership still up for debateTotal Replies: 15
Author Content
Bob_Robertson

Aug 25, 2009
3:17 PM EDT
That's it, throw it to the public domain. Take it away from everyone, just like mother used to do when two kids were fighting over a single toy.

How could a free market without copyright laws be any worse? The mind boggles.
caitlyn

Aug 25, 2009
3:32 PM EDT
Copyright, when applied and enforced properly, is a valuable tool. Here it is clearly being misused and the judge, well... I think you can guess my opinion.
Bob_Robertson

Aug 25, 2009
4:38 PM EDT
> I think you can guess my opinion.

I do not believe it can be enforced "properly", because "properly" is subjective.

We agree entirely on the results, merely disagree on the methods. Copyright, as it is being enforced today, sucks.
caitlyn

Aug 25, 2009
5:53 PM EDT
Quoting:We agree entirely on the results, merely disagree on the methods. Copyright, as it is being enforced today, sucks.


Perhaps, but we'd be far worse off without it. I'm glad my writing is copyrighted.
Bob_Robertson

Aug 25, 2009
5:55 PM EDT
> we'd be far worse off without it.

Again, like "properly", just opinion.
tracyanne

Aug 25, 2009
6:02 PM EDT
Before copyright and patents knowledge was fiercely protected and passed down only to members of family, clan or guild, and only after the recipient swore never to reveal the knowledge to any outsider.

herzeleid

Aug 25, 2009
6:04 PM EDT
Quoting:Copyright, when applied and enforced properly, is a valuable tool.
I can't see any good that's come from software copyrights. All they do is stifle innovation, and entrench the old boys with the deepest pockets by criminalizing any attempt by potential competitors to enter the market.

The big money players file junk patents on every imaginable algorithm that might naturally occur to a programmer, and thus create a minefield. The innovative would-be competitors are in mortal danger if they dare to code, even from scratch, anything which threatens the monopolies of the entrenched interests, because whatever they've coded is absolutely guaranteed to "violate" one or more of these junk patents, and the genuine ideas of coders are criminalized.

Quoting:Here it is clearly being misused
But of course - once the necessary conditions have been created with these patent laws, what else could you expect to happen?

Who benefits from this absurd state of affairs, pray tell? And what would you consider a valid scenario for the use of software patents?
Sander_Marechal

Aug 25, 2009
6:14 PM EDT
Quoting:I can't see any good that's come from software copyrights. All they do is stifle innovation, and entrench the old boys with the deepest pockets by criminalizing any attempt by potential competitors to enter the market.


Aren't you mixing up copyrights and patents here?
herzeleid

Aug 25, 2009
6:33 PM EDT
Quoting:Aren't you mixing up copyrights and patents here?
Indeed, it appear so at first glance. But if the OP is actually for copyrights but against patents that would be an interesting situation, and one which (I must confess) I did not see coming.
caitlyn

Aug 25, 2009
7:14 PM EDT
Well, I'm all for copyrights but opposed to software patents as they exist. You copyright a specific work, not an idea. Software patents are for ideas, not for specific code. Anyone who has ever done any programming knows there are always many different ways to solve a given problem and the code can end up looking completely different when two people write code for a given purpose. Patenting an idea doesn't allow for that fact or that two solutions could be completely independent of one another.

So, yeah, Sander is right. You're mixing patents and copyrights and IMHO they are two very different issues.
jdixon

Aug 25, 2009
8:47 PM EDT
> You copyright a specific work, not an idea.

Exactly.

> Software patents are for ideas, not for specific code.

The original concept of patents was that the idea could not be patented, but only a specific implementation of the idea..
caitlyn

Aug 25, 2009
8:50 PM EDT
@jdixon: Yes, but unfortunately that is no longer the case. If it was I wouldn't have an objection to patents either.
herzeleid

Aug 26, 2009
2:39 AM EDT
Quoting:So, yeah, Sander is right. You're mixing patents and copyrights and IMHO they are two very different issues.
You're right, I was lumping together the pro copyright and pro patent people in my mind, since I was so accustomed to seeing them trogether. Your position is completely reasonable.
hkwint

Aug 26, 2009
3:55 AM EDT
Yeah, that's what Microsoft / SCO / lawyers / legal beagles / CEO's and the like want you to believe:

There's no such thing as the separate existence of Copyright, patents and trademarks, there's only the "umbrella" definition of Intellectual Property.

We shouldn't let them succeed and try to make a distinction whenever possible.

Most of the "IP" abuse is related to software patents (90% of it I think). Some small minority of "IP" abuse is related to trademarks (for example: Mike Row soft vs. Microsoft and maybe Theos vs. Theo de Raadt) And then there's SCO, who managed to abuse copyright it seems, which is weird because to me it seems "copyright violation" is the easiest to prove. Probably it is because some legal entities were trading copyright that's causing this legal obscurity.
number6x

Aug 26, 2009
8:22 AM EDT
Please read the articles about this carefully. The original decision has been overturned because the Court has decided that the transfer of copyrights is something that needs to be decided in a trial, not in a summary judgment.

SCO has still offered no evidence that the copyrights were transfered other than statements to the effect "we thought we were getting them". All the evidence has been presented and Novell has some very good lawyers (MOFO). The contracts explicitly state that the copyrights do not transfer, and the evidence of continued payments back up what the contracts say.

I think SCO has been given more time, but they have not really been given any hope. (IANAL)
gus3

Aug 26, 2009
9:57 AM EDT
Quoting:I think SCO has been given more time, but they have not really been given any hope.
And those who are claiming a renewed hope, are no longer at the helm.

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