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That’s not true. Copyright of source code would protect your invention. However if someone else wrote their own code to do the same thing, it would not be pro

by eof 7y ago

That’s not true. Copyright of source code would protect your invention. However if someone else wrote their own code to do the same thing, it would not be protected, which is the point.

pnw_hazor 7y ago
It protects the code not the invention. Rewrite from C to java and you get around copyright. With respect to patents, inventions are about how you do something. Whether it is written in java or C is irrelevant. Similarly, for gadget patents, the material it is manufactured out of doesn't matter.
- eof 7y ago
  Perhaps that’s an edge case not well covered? Is my copyrighted English work not covered if someone translates it to another language?
  - jcranmer 7y ago
    Translation is one of the canonical examples of derivatives works [1], and one of the rights implied by copyright is the right to control the production of derivative works. The question of rewriting a library in a different programming language has never been litigated, to my knowledge, so there's no precedent as to whether or not it would violate copyright. The customary practice is to assume that the code produced by anyone who has seen the original source code would qualify as a derivative work, and therefore to rely on a clean-room implementation, where one group inspects the source code and builds a spec that a second group uses to implement the replacement. In the absence of legal precedent, the customary practice tends to be accorded legal preference, so it's reasonably likely that a court would rule that somebody who looks at a C implementation and produces a Java implementation without any intermediaries would constitute a derivative work and therefore be in violation of copyright if not properly authorized by the copyright owner. [1] It's literally the first example given in the US law.
- pgcj_poster 7y ago
  > Rewrite from C to java and you get around copyright. This is incorrect. Translations, in either natural or computer languages, qualify as derivative works under copyright law.

by eof 7y ago

That’s not true. Copyright of source code would protect your invention. However if someone else wrote their own code to do the same thing, it would not be protected, which is the point.

pnw_hazor 7y ago

It protects the code not the invention. Rewrite from C to java and you get around copyright. With respect to patents, inventions are about how you do something. Whether it is written in java or C is irrelevant. Similarly, for gadget patents, the material it is manufactured out of doesn't matter.

eof 7y ago
Perhaps that’s an edge case not well covered? Is my copyrighted English work not covered if someone translates it to another language?
- jcranmer 7y ago
  Translation is one of the canonical examples of derivatives works [1], and one of the rights implied by copyright is the right to control the production of derivative works. The question of rewriting a library in a different programming language has never been litigated, to my knowledge, so there's no precedent as to whether or not it would violate copyright. The customary practice is to assume that the code produced by anyone who has seen the original source code would qualify as a derivative work, and therefore to rely on a clean-room implementation, where one group inspects the source code and builds a spec that a second group uses to implement the replacement. In the absence of legal precedent, the customary practice tends to be accorded legal preference, so it's reasonably likely that a court would rule that somebody who looks at a C implementation and produces a Java implementation without any intermediaries would constitute a derivative work and therefore be in violation of copyright if not properly authorized by the copyright owner. [1] It's literally the first example given in the US law.
pgcj_poster 7y ago
> Rewrite from C to java and you get around copyright. This is incorrect. Translations, in either natural or computer languages, qualify as derivative works under copyright law.