On Fri, 2007-08-10 at 12:59 +0200, Joerg Schilling wrote: > I am not sure about copyright laws in less free countries, but in > Germany/Europe, > there is something called "Recht auf das wissenschaftliche Kleinzitat". > You may quote other people's work _without_ ever asking them for permission > in case > this is needed for your work and as long as your work has enough own > "creation level" > to make it a separate work.
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that US copyright law is essentially similar. Those who disagree may want to read: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Lexmark_v_Static_Control/20041026_Ruling.pdf (particularly the discussion of copyright as applied to functional elements of computer programs on pages 5 through 8 of the decision), which cites a large number of prior cases which establish that copyright protection does not prevent the copying of purely functional elements necessary to build interoperable software and hardware. - Bill _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
