Christopher James Huff <chr### [at] maccom> wrote:
> Copyrighting the 
> source to a program makes sense, but can you copyright a small for() 
> loop that would be written by any programmer solving the same problem?

  One big problem I think, is related to that.
  Programmers will come up with solutions to problems independently, without
knowing that someone else has already come up with a very similar solution
and patented it. If this programmer makes his program public, still without
any knowledge of the patent, the patent holder can sue him.

  The problem I see here is this: Where is the crime? Why is he sued?
Certainly he hasn't copied others' ideas for his program, as he made the
program entirely himself, without looking at anyone else's ideas.
  In my opinion this starts getting closer to limiting freedom of speech.
It's something that you created yourself, without copying nor even hearing
about the idea earlier. It's your own creation, your own work, your own
way of expressing things. And you can get sued for doing that? That is
like censorship. Where is this world going? *sigh*

-- 
#macro M(A,N,D,L)plane{-z,-9pigment{mandel L*9translate N color_map{[0rgb x]
[1rgb 9]}scale<D,D*3D>*1e3}rotate y*A*8}#end M(-3<1.206434.28623>70,7)M(
-1<.7438.1795>1,20)M(1<.77595.13699>30,20)M(3<.75923.07145>80,99)// - Warp -

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