Re: [OT] Re: Intellectual Property in Network Design
On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 8:54 AM, Skeeve Stevens < skeeve@eintellegonetworks.com> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 8:55 PM, William Waites <wwaites@tardis.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
An engineer or architect in the usual setting, no matter how skilled, is not doing art because the whole activity is pre-conceived. Even a
Excellent perspective...
Howdy, I have to disagree with you there. This particular ship sailed four decades ago when CONTU found computer software to be copyrightable and the subsequent legislation and litigation agreed. If a router configuration turns out not to be art, it isn't because the engineer had to follow practical rules to create it. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:28:25 -0500, William Herrin said:
I have to disagree with you there. This particular ship sailed four decades ago when CONTU found computer software to be copyrightable and the subsequent legislation and litigation agreed.
The output of "craft" is copyrightable even if it doesn't count as "art", as long as it meets the requirement of 17 USC 102(a)(1) - "literary works". The issue with software wasn't if it was "art", but if it was a literary work (they struggled for a while with the concept of machine-readable versus human readable). "Furthermore, the House Report discussing the Act states: The term "literary works" does not connote any criterion of literary merit or qualitative value: it includes catalogs, directories, and similar factual, reference, or instructional works and compilations of data. It also includes computer data bases, and computer programs to the extent that they incorporate authorship in the programmer's expression of original ideas, as distinguished from the ideas themselves. {FN8: H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476 at 54} http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise17.html If catalogs and directories are covered, config files are... :)
On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 12:25 PM, <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
The issue with software wasn't if it was "art", but if it was a literary work (they struggled for a while with the concept of machine-readable versus human readable).
If catalogs and directories are covered, config files are... :)
Smells like a Friday challenge for who can produce the most "artistic" yet functionally correct Cisco configuration. -Bill -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 13:36:43 -0500, William Herrin said:
On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 12:25 PM, <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
If catalogs and directories are covered, config files are... :)
Smells like a Friday challenge for who can produce the most "artistic" yet functionally correct Cisco configuration.
All too many of them read like either Edgar Allen Poe or HP Lovecraft. :)
Thank you for looking up facts, laws, etc... The rest is merely opinion, and wouldn't necessarily help someone trying to protect their network designs. On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 11:25 AM, <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:28:25 -0500, William Herrin said:
I have to disagree with you there. This particular ship sailed four decades ago when CONTU found computer software to be copyrightable and the subsequent legislation and litigation agreed.
The output of "craft" is copyrightable even if it doesn't count as "art", as long as it meets the requirement of 17 USC 102(a)(1) - "literary works".
The issue with software wasn't if it was "art", but if it was a literary work (they struggled for a while with the concept of machine-readable versus human readable).
"Furthermore, the House Report discussing the Act states: The term "literary works" does not connote any criterion of literary merit or qualitative value: it includes catalogs, directories, and similar factual, reference, or instructional works and compilations of data. It also includes computer data bases, and computer programs to the extent that they incorporate authorship in the programmer's expression of original ideas, as distinguished from the ideas themselves. {FN8: H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476 at 54}
http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise17.html
If catalogs and directories are covered, config files are... :)
participants (3)
-
Rafael Possamai -
Valdis.Kletnieks＠vt.edu -
William Herrin