> Dave, strictly on the topic of intellectual property and > copyrights, and not on what Ben and Brian decide to do, I > don't feel like I can let that go. ;o) > > Your example, in my opinion (which I fully realize is probably > *contrary* to what the law says about intellectual property), > compares apples to oranges, or as a math professor of mine > once said, "goats to chickens". > > We're talking about test questions here. Not a novel, or even > a book that contains *original* thoughts and musings as you > suggest in your example. So let's take another more analogous > example.
My example was intended to demonstrate that misuse of intellectual property doesn't rely on the profit motive of the abuser. It was not intended to delimit the scope of what is intellectual property. But you could apply the same example steps to, say, Ben Forta's CF certification study guide and come to the same conclusion. Would it be petty of Ben to complain if I provided photocopies of it for free at the next CF user group meeting? I don't think it would be. Anyway, as I made clear in a previous response, the arrangement and formatting of public domain data can be considered (and has been considered) intellectual property. > Of course, that's entirely silly, but I'm just making a > point. I think people can take this intellectual property > thing a bit too far. I'm tired of things like this > potentially bogging down an already overworked court system. Perhaps, but that is a matter between you and your elected representatives. In the absence of any changes, we are expected to obey the law as it stands, not as we wish it stood. > I realize this is probably contrary to what the law says, but hey... > I'm not a lawyer), test questions aren't (or at least shouldn't > be) intellectual property. Legal advice from programmers is about as useful as program code from lawyers. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http:http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:266786 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
