> I'm saying copyright the entire item, which to me means the syntax. A programming language is so much more than just the syntax. The syntax is only skin-deep

> I'm saying copyright the entire item, which to me means the syntax. A programming language is so much more than just the syntax. The syntax is only skin-deep, what matters (and where the differences are) is the semantics of the language. The problem in copyrighting the syntax of a language is that it's very trivial to whip up another syntax. For example, JavaScript has the regular syntax but you can also write JavaScript using the CoffeeScript or ParenScript syntax while having the same semantics. So if someone were to copyright a language syntax, it would be very easy to write an almost compatible language with a minor change to the syntax. The new language would be (source level) incompatible, but in essence it would be the same thing. The only reason for adding this incompatibility would be to avoid IP restrictions. That's what we don't want, similar but incompatible languages with the only motivation being keeping lawyers happy.