On Sun, 1 Feb 2004, Danese Cooper wrote: > I know that some of the bigger firms in the US are explicitly > copyrighting their briefs.
Having a copyright on an expression of an information process is very different than having a patent on the process itself. As long as you don't infringe on their copy then you have no problem with a copyright, but with a patent it applies to all ways to express a given information process. Given the need to publish precedent with the legal system (a form of "open source") the copyright on these briefs would have to be licensed adequately open already. I do believe that problems created in computer software ends up showing up in other fields. We need to eradicate information process patents here before it causes more serious damage in other more critical aspects of our society (legal system, electoral/parliamentary system, governance/democracy, etc - "code is law"). --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than politicians should be bought. -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/ -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
