From: gb03@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (GEORGE PHILIP BLUHM)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Idiotic Copyrights.
Date: 1 Oct 92 01:44:26 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <crystal.717816817@glia>, crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal
) writes:
>In <1992Sep29.010344.4716@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> gb03@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (GEORGE PHI
LIP BLUHM) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Sep28.130127.22561@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>, peteru@hydra.maths.u
ns
>>w.EDU.AU writes:
>>>In article <mwm.209n@contessa.palo-alto.ca.us> mwm@contessa.palo-alto.ca.us (
Mi
>>ke Meyer) writes:
>>>>
>>>>There's a move afoot to add clauses to the berne convention that would
>>>>allow copyright to cover a language specification. This would mean
>>>>that a language could have a copyright attached to it. I have no idea
>>>>if the changes would allow existing languages to be so covered (and I
>>>>can't wait for AT&T to sue Borland and Microsoft for infringing their
>>>>copyright on C). If anyone knows the current status of these changes,
>>>>I'd appreciate hearing about it.
>>>>
>>>>      <mike
>>>
>>>That is just plain stupid. Don't these people have any common sense.
>>>It's as ridiculous as copyrighting a natural language. If I go and claim
>>>the copyright to English, then anyone that wants to learn English will
>>>have to pay royalties to me. C'mon, they can't be thick enough to consider
>>>something like that!!!
>>>
>>>Not to insult anyone, but this is generaly the American way these days,
>>>isn't it?  If you have seen the movie Suburban Commando with Hulk Hogan
>>>you know what I mean:
>>>
>>>Bad Guy: You know what we are going to do to you?
>>>Hulk: Let me guess. You gonna pound my face in?
>>>Bad Guy: No man, this is the nineties, we gonna sue you!
>>>
>>>If anyone knows how serious they are about this issue I'd like to hear
>>>about it too.
>>>
>>>
>>>                               Peter.
>>>
>>>
>>>Peter Urbanec                            peteru@hydra.maths.unsw.oz.au
>>>University of New South Wales          s1013734@cs.unsw.oz.au
>>>Sydney, Australia
>>>               The only sin is stupidity  - Machiavelli
>>>
>
>>Never, Never I repeat under estimate the foolishness or stupidity of a
>>bureaucrat other person in high places that is not answerable to logic or
>>sanity.
>
>>Phyle THEE McNasty
>
>A friend of mine recently challenged a patent that a fellow made on the
>LOGLAN language.  The challenge was successful.  You cannot copyright or
>patent a language, though you can trademark it (I believe - don't quote me on
>this one).  Anyway he spent a year or so fighting it, but he had to prove
>that the language had been in use pretty much in the public domain for about
>30 years prior to the patent.  I don't recall all the details, but that was
>the gist of it.
>
>Crystal
>  ;>
>
>      __
>     ///
>__  ///=====================================================================
>\\\/// Amiga | Great spirits have always encountered violent  | To *KNOW* it
> \XX/  2000  | opposition from mediocre minds. -- A. Einstein | Is to LOVE it!
>============================================================================
>
I was under the impression a Trade Mark was only a symbol indicating a
product or company.  Anyway, any language on a computer is only of a logical
form and can be derived from any logical inference.  That is, they are all the
same and only subset of the total language at best.  May be only the commands
could be something or other legally protected.  Other than that,they are all
mathematically equivalent to each other(Noam Chomsky and others).

Phyl THEE McNasty
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