> Mark Wielaard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > Please be very carefull about implementing any J2EE stuff. A lot of specs and
> > javadoc documentation about J2EE technologies can only be accessed by first
> > agreeing to a restrictive license. Please read that license carefully before
> > downloading any of that documentation. It might be better to buy a good book
> > on some J2EE stuff you want to implement to prevent a legal nightmare.
> >
> > Just me being paranoid,
> >
>
> Rightly to be paranoid about this. A number of books out
> there right now on Swing liberally include source code
> from Sun's implementation; don't buy such books. The
> books on J2EE (which I think O'Reilly has one) all contain
> the SCSL license which you essentially agree to by reading
> the book. J2EE and PersonalJava both seem to be difficult
> to implement based on the license/copyright of the
> specification or parts thereof. Hopefully future versions
> of standard Java from Sun will not go the same direction.
>
Never in my life have I agreed to a license by reading or
buying a publicly available book. (Other than being bound
by copyright law.) I have no knowledge of any case law
that suggests this is on a par with opening a shrink wrap
license. Sun is wishing that this "licensee consent" is
taking place with the purchase of a book, but this is far
from accepted practice. In fact, it is one of the very
cornerstones on which HP makes it case that it can it can
freely use the ideas in the JVM spec without having
licensed it for Chai. It simply bought a book, publicly
available.
Intellectual property must fall into one of 3 categories:
Copyright, Trademark or Patent.
Specifically, IMHO, it is non-sensical to think that a
book, publicly available for sale, is a viable means to
license a trade secret. I think that a publicly available
book basically kills the notion that the contents is
henceforth a trade secret. Publish the ideas in a
publicly available book, and the ether is now out of the
bottle and the trade secret is forever destroyed.
Furthermore, it is non-sensical that you are violating a
copyright by implementing the ideas expressed by a
copyrighted specification. Copyright is the protection of
"expression of ideas", not the ideas themselves.
Copyright protects the particular expression, not the ideas
themselves.
Bottom line, what you can't do is copy code from a book, as
this violates the copyright, which is the particular
expression of an idea.
A legal opinion is better than mine, since I am not a
lawyer. So if this is a key tactical issue, get an
opinion.
My concern in posting this is to nip in the bud what
could otherwise become a commonly accepted [false]
notion, that you can protect ideas published in a
publicly available book.
The only way to protect ideas published in a publicly
available book is by having patents on those same ideas, or
to make the book available only *after* the reader has
agreed to a trade secret license.
Selling him the book, then insisting he has agreed to a
license after the fact is hogwash.
But if that same license is under a book shrink wrap, then
watch out.
Again, all lay opinion, but with some experience.
My ass could fall off tomorrow.
Dick
SoftPLC, Open Architecture Control Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ph: 512/264-8390
Fx: 512/264-8399
http://www.softplc.com
