On 4/26/09, Stavros Macrakis <macra...@alum.mit.edu> wrote: > On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 7:24 AM, Ted Harding > > <ted.hard...@manchester.ac.uk> wrote: > > On 24-Apr-09 16:53:04, Stavros Macrakis wrote: > >> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Ted Harding > >> <ted.hard...@manchester.ac.uk> wrote: > >> [...] > >>> ...inspires someone to incorporate the same language extension > >>> into a GPL'd FORTRAN interpreter/compiler. I think I could then > >>> be vulnerable, or they could, on the grounds that I/they had pinched > >>> the idea from the commercial product. > >> > >> Unless you have a confidentiality agreement of some kind, or the idea > >> is covered by a patent, you can pinch any ideas you like from other > >> products. Copyright law does not cover ideas. > > > > Well, I'm not so sure about that ... back in 2002/2003, National > > Instrument sued the MathWorks (MatLab proprietors) on the grounds > > that the MathWorks Simulink graphical development tool infringed > > > on National Instruments' patented rights in such an idea.... > > That was a patent case. We were discussing copyright licenses. Please > read up on the difference before speculating.
And you can read Stallman's take on it here: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml -Deepayan ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel