Some parts, yes, are facts: the name of the package, its dependencies, its home page. Others parts are not: the DescPort, for instance, or PatchScript. For this reason, one cannot say that the entire work is exempt from copyright law.
I agree --- and that's what I said in http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=11309312
He had created the SplitOffs and SSL handling in a way I never would have thought of, and I had added configure parameters that fixed bugs
> he was not able to resolve.
But once you filter out the idea (also not copyrightable, see Title 17, Sec. 102(b)), I suspect you'll find that the expression of that idea is quite limited by the technical and policy requirements of the info file.
> By
the same token, two programmers implementing a quicksort algorithm may end up with very similar code. But does this mean none of these works is protected by copyright law?
If the programming language you're working in gives you basically one way to write the quicksort algorithm, and you picked that way, then yes.
Now hold on here... Does a metric of sufficient creativity truly exist?
Yes. See, for example, http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#title ("Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or /short phrases/" [emphasis added]), http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.html (expanded version of prior link).
Also, look up the "de minimus" doctrine.
BTW: Copyright law on sound recordings and literary works is different.
Yesterday I went to the store and bought a glass of milk and drank it.
Is this poem copyrightable? By your definition, no. It is very short. It is also factual.
I'd guess no.
Oh, and watch out for haiku fanatics trying to extract revenge for that poem.
And yes, having licensing on info files clearly given by their authors would be a very good thing.
------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by Demarc: A global provider of Threat Management Solutions. Download our HomeAdmin security software for free today! http://www.demarc.com/Info/Sentarus/hamr30 _______________________________________________ Fink-devel mailing list Fink-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-devel
