5 ms·

Funny story, AT&T claims copyright on this empty file. Every time you use a blank line in your program, you're violating their copyright http://trillian.mit.ed

• dragonwriter 9y ago
  AT&T may claim copyright on a file that contains, besides the copyright notice, only blank lines, but even if that copyright is valid, that doesn't make any use of blank lines a violation of that copyright. Copyright violation requires actual copying/derivation, not mere similarity of content. (The latter can be evidence of the former, and often—because of the nature of the content and improbability of coincidental similarity, can be compelling evidence—but is not the thing prohibited.)
  • dllthomas 9y ago
    And to make it slightly more explicit, the nature of empty content - unlike complicated creative content - is that coincidental similarity is actually pretty likely.