> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Charles Mills
>
> John Chase replied to my defense of software patents, and my
> mention that I had a software patent pending, with "What does
> a patent do for your software 'invention' that copyright does
> not? I.e., why is copyright not sufficient?"
>
> [ snip ]
> Anyway, copyrighting software protects the "expression," not
> the function.
> It's like a poem comparing love to a rose: copyright protects
> the particular poetic expression, but not the concept of the
> similarity of love and roses.
> [ snip ]
>
> My invention is not the expression of the code that embodies
> it. Thanks, John, this is a great example. I am about to tell
> you how my invention works. I could not do that if the only
> protection were a copyright on the source code, because you
> could easily write your own code that implemented the
> invention, and did not infringe on my potentially copyrighted
> source code, because it would be expressed in original form.
> But because I have a patent pending, my invention itself is
> protected from theft, and I can share 100% of how it works
> with you today.
>
> [ snip ]
>
> In my invention, the software requires the entry of two
> things to enable it:
> a key that is supplied by the vendor, AND the credit card
> number you used to buy the software. The key is constructed
> by the vendor from a hash of the product code and your credit
> card number. The purchased software re-computes the hash and
> compares it to the entered key.
> [ snip ]
Thanks for explaining the distinction between the protections of
copyright vs. patent.
But how does your invention differ substantially from, say, the
technique used to validate my license for Tom Brennan's VISTA terminal
emulator? To "activate" my copy of VISTA, it required me to enter my
name exactly as I had spelled it on the purchase order, along with a
product key furnished by Tom Brennan, presumably generated in a similar
manner to your key. The only visible difference is requiring my name
rather than a credit card number, so it appears you've only changed the
"expression" of an existing technique.
-jc-
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