* Jim Porter <[email protected]> [2026-03-06 01:20]: > On 3/5/2026 8:09 AM, Laurence von Bottorff wrote: > > I just spent a few hours of my precious mortal life going round and > > round with Gemini trying to get ob-sml to work properly. As Gemini > > pointed out, the ob-sml.el was essentially abandonware, last updated > > well over ten years ago, and very antiquated. We (i.e., Gemini; my Lisp > > skills are at /The Little Lisper /level) made improvements that have sml > > in babel code blocks working and looking much better on the latest sml > > 110.99.9. Could I submit this? If so, how do I do that? Never done > > before... > > (Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and also not an Org-mode maintainer, though I > do maintain part of GNU Emacs.) > > The US Supreme Court has recently affirmed that the outputs of generative AI > aren't copyrightable; the "author" is held to be the computer, but copyright > is only applicable to creative works authored by humans. The result is that > the gen-AI outputs are public domain.
The information you give isn't representative to your reference! Being specific with information brings more clarity and helps people with programming. Let us be more specific here: > The US Supreme Court's 2026 decision to decline reviewing *Thaler > v. Perlmutter* reinforces that purely AI-generated works are > ineligible for copyright in the United States, as they lack the > required human authorship, though hybrid works with significant human > input may still qualify. To make AI-generated work copyrightable, you can't just hit a button and claim ownership; you need to add your own "human touch." Here is a simple, informal guide on how to do it based on the rules: 1. Don't Just Copy-Paste: If an AI creates something entirely on its own without you interfering, it belongs to everyone (the public domain) because there is no human creativity involved. 2. Write Your Own Prompts: Instead of using a vague command, spend time crafting very detailed, specific instructions. The more unique and creative your directions are, the stronger the case that you are the creator, not just the machine. 3. Edit and Modify: After the AI generates the first draft, you must step in and change things. Rewrite parts, rearrange elements, fix mistakes, or add new details that the AI didn't suggest. 4. Combine Your Ideas: Merge the AI's output with your own original ideas or existing human-created art to create a new, hybrid piece. 5. Show Your Effort: Whether you are writing text, designing images, or coding, keep records of your specific inputs and edits to prove that you put in significant human effort. The Bottom Line: You need to be the driver, not just the passenger. The more your personal creativity shapes the final result, the more likely you are to own the copyright. > Since the GPL uses copyright law as a way of guaranteeing the four freedoms, > the inclusion of legally-significant amounts of public domain work would > undermine this. Any public domain code could be relicensed under a > more-permissive license like BSD, or even extracted and used in proprietary > software. If there were no copyright laws, people would not attack others for sharing information, and there would be no GPL in the first place. As the GNU Project is about sharing software, it just happens that copyrights are the obstacle to it, so the GPL is the tool to counter malicious intentions. Without copyright laws, there would be no need for the GPL, and we would anyway have free software. By the way, public domain works can be mixed with GPL-licensed works. They remain public domain; this does not affect the GPL works or the terms of the GPL if public domain works are included with them. By definition, works in the public domain are not protected by copyright and can be used by anyone without restriction; therefore, they cannot be subject to a license agreement or have their status "re-licensed" because no exclusive rights exist to license. Public domain works can definitely be used in free software domain. -- Jean Louis
