On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 12:49 AM, Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com> wrote:
This assumes that Copyright is the only IP protection out there. There are actually two distinct realms of IP protection afforded in the US.
Actually, there are four: copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret. A network configuration could fall under either copyright or trade secret. It won't fall under trademark and it's hard to imagine how a network configuration of a general shape anticipated by the router manufacturer could fall under patent. Not with the double-whammy of prior art and the recent rulings to the effect that adding "on a computer" to a technique is insufficient to make it patentable.
However, all of the technicalities on this stuff vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The broad strokes have been normalized through treaties for the most part, but details and technicalities still vary quite a bit.
There are only so many jurisdictions with distinct law in North America. You know, this being NANOG and all. -Bill -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>