copyright scope

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

Roland Orre wrote:

> About software patents: I don't agree with rms that software can be
> patentable. As I have understood, rms (nowadays) has a similar view as
> Greg that obvious software ideas should not be patentable, but I

huh??
where did RMS say that software should be patentable?

> consider no software to be patentable. Software should be possible to
> copyright but a reimplementation in another language should not infringe
> the copyright.

> Of course this view has consequences: it implies that it would be
> perfectly all right for M$ to steal the [ref Ballmer] "viral" GPL
> programs and reimplement them in C# for instance. This feels wrong,
> but it's less bad than having the "idea" of a GPL program
> copyrighted or patented.

Just rewriting in C# is a copyright infringment.

Only clean-room implementations are not.

If you are so close to an original that the original's errors or
individual peculiarities show up in your program, then you are a plagiator
and have violated copyright.