golin@margaux.inria.fr (Mordecai Golin) (05/22/91)
I am posting this for a friend of mine who is a lawyer doing research into copywrite law and computers. He's looking for real life examples of cases where programmers have had to write their code around, or totally rewrite their code, because of copywrite considerations. I don't normally read theses groups so please email your responses to me. If there is enough interest I`ll post a summary. Thanks Mordecai Golin golin@margaux.inria.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I am a lawyer writing an article on copywrite protection of computer programs. I would be interested in problems anybody has had with copywrite laws while writing software. My article argues that, in many instances, the range of programming choices available to a programmer are limited and that, where there are few ways of carrying out a particular operation, programmers should be free, under relevant law, to use existing programming solutions to achieve such operations. I would be interested in hearing about (1) real life problems you have faced in deciding whether you may use existing code in the design of new products or (2) hypothetical examples that come to mind. At least five sets of constraints limit the range of programming expression, including: (1) Requirements of the end user: e.g., using a Lotus-type screen display for a spreadsheet program is an industry standard which probably all programs must incorporate to be competitive. (2) Requirements of the target hardware: e.g., establishing compatibility with the hardware upon which a program will operate. (3) Complying with the hardware standards: e.g., may programmers copy suggested programming solutions from manuals published by a hardware manufacturer? (4) Requirements of the target software: e.g., designing a program to function in a particular software environment. (5) Conventions of computer programming: e.g., a programming language may have limitations of its own which reduce the number of ways a particular function can be executed efficiently in that language. I would appreciate learning of addtional examples of these limitations on programming expression as well as examples of any other limitations you may have encountered or anticipate encountering. Finally, I am particularly interested in learning about difficulties associated with designing expert systems with programming languages such as C, LISP and PROLOG. That is, I would like to know how the constraints described above affect the ability of programmers to develop competitive expert system shells, inference engines, and knowledge bases. Thank you very much for your assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------