oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster) (03/05/86)
In article <1411@brl-smoke.ARPA> wmartin@almsa-1.arpa (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI) writes: >First off, thanks to Jordan & Lisa Breslow for that long and informative >(and well-written) article on Copyright Law that came out about 10 days >back. > Same here. Now for my question: what exactly is copyrightable? Is a language definition (e.g. C)? If so, would the copyright have to *specifically* include said definition? In other words, if I invented a language called, say, Tortuga, and copyrighted and sold a compiler, could somebody else write their own version of Tortuga, without fear of legal action? Would they have to call it something else, or could they in fact call it Tortuga, assuming I haven't trademarked the name? Even given all the preceeding protective measures, would it be allowable to call what is essentially a Tortuga compiler something else, but claim (and advertise) 100% compatibility with Tortuga source? And going even further (Apple vs DRI {GEM} & Atari vs Whomever {Pac-man} notwithstanding), can *any* copyrighted program be rebuilt from the ground up by a second party, preserving functionality, and be a legally viable product? (Or is this where patents come into the picture?) Any discussion on this subject would be appreciated, even if you actually know what you're talking about (:-). - Joel Plutchak {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster