Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-16 Thread Sean Kellogg
On Sunday 15 February 2009 10:49:17 pm Ben Finney wrote:
 Joe Smith unknown_kev_...@hotmail.com writes:
 
  This new version is the very definition of a function too trivial to
  copyright
 
 That's a pretty strong assertion. The “very definition of” as
 defined where? Or what, exactly, are you claiming?
 
 You also seem to be under the misapprehension that “to copyright” is
 something that a creator does to a work. It's not. Instead, copyright
 is an automatic monopoly granted *to* the creator; under the Berne
 convention, nobody decides “to copyright” a work.
 
 Or, more briefly: copyright long ago stopped being a verb, and is now
 a noun. It's now more akin to a very insidious attribute that slithers
 into just about any human intellectual work usually uninvited, and is
 very difficult to eradicate completely from the work.

Wow... ideological ax to grind?

  even the variable names and whitespaceing are as non-creative as
  possible.
 
 “Difficult to read” isn't the same thing as “non-creative”. On the
 contrary; you have demonstrated that someone can creatively decide on
 different creative expressions of the same work, to the extent that
 you contrast your expression with one that differs in its uses of
 variable names and whitespace.

He didn't say difficult to read, he pointed out that his variable names are 
defined by what they do and thus highly functional. It is like writing a book 
where your characters are named Hero and Villain. You aren't going to be 
getting a copyright on just the names in the way that J.K. Rowling has with 
Harry Potter.

 Moreover, I'm not aware of a valid legal theory that use of variable
 names or whitespace have any bearing on whether a particular work is
 subject to copyright.

Then you aren't looking very hard. Of course, you already made it perfectly 
clear how you feel about copyright in general, but one of the central premises 
they teach you about copyright law in law school is that copyrights can be 
thin or weak. It's not to say that such a  work doesn't have a *some* 
copyright, it is to say that one has to work VERY HARD to actually infringe it. 
Thin copyrights generally require verbatim copying to be infringed, where a 
more substantive copyright is easy to infring via derivative work or the theory 
whose name I can't remember that says you had access to the original, so you 
probably used it as a copy.

 Given all that, I'd be very wary of taking the above quoted claims as
 having any meaningful application.

I must say Ben, you're entire email just drips of hash judgment. Here's a dude, 
Mr. Joe Smith, who is trying to do something helpful by providing a clean room 
implementation of the javascript code... doing something, instead of just 
saying what *ought* to be done like the all previous responders in this thread. 
Instead of saying thanks, you decide to just tear him to shreds? What sort of a 
community do you think this should be? Good grief...

To Joe, it would be nice if (if you are the original author of the clean-room 
code you provided) to give explicit notice of the license you are distributing 
it under so that Colin Turner (the original questioner) can package it up and 
provide a proper copyright notice. Beyond that, thanks for your efforts.

-Sean

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e: skell...@gmail.com
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We are the ones we've been waiting for. 
We are the change that we seek. 


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-16 Thread Joe Smith


Ben Finney ben+deb...@benfinney.id.au wrote in message 
news:874oyuq3ki@benfinney.id.au...

Joe Smith unknown_kev_...@hotmail.com writes:


This new version is the very definition of a function too trivial to
copyright


That's a pretty strong assertion. The “very definition of” as
defined where? Or what, exactly, are you claiming?


That was intended to be hyperbole. But, surely if any code could reasonably 
be claimed to be too trivial for copyright protection to apply, that work 
could.



You also seem to be under the misapprehension that “to copyright” is
something that a creator does to a work. It's not. Instead, copyright
is an automatic monopoly granted *to* the creator; under the Berne
convention, nobody decides “to copyright” a work.


I am well aware of that, but trying to use more accurate phrasing like too 
trivial for copyright protection to apply, made the sentence sound awkward. 
You are of course correct that I should have used better phrasing here.




“Difficult to read” isn't the same thing as “non-creative”. On the
contrary; you have demonstrated that someone can creatively decide on
different creative expressions of the same work, to the extent that
you contrast your expression with one that differs in its uses of
variable names and whitespace.


Yes, but use of the most trivially functional possible version minimizes the 
amount of creative content.


If I write a phonebook, in which I hand selected the order of names such 
that they fit an acrostic,

that may very well be be subject to copyright.

But it is well established that the standard alphabetical ordering is purely 
functional (non-creative).



Moreover, I'm not aware of a valid legal theory that use of variable
names or whitespace have any bearing on whether a particular work is
subject to copyright.


In general no variable names and whitespace should not make a difference, 
although surely by minimizing the amount of potentially creative content in 
a work makes it less likely to fall on the side non-trivial, rather than 
trivial.


Normally only on edge cases should variable names or whitespacing make a 
difference.
However the edge between sufficently creative to subject to copyright 
protection, and innsufciently creative to be subject to copyright protection 
is certainly not well defined.


Therefore, for this purpose, it was decided to err on the side of caution. 




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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-16 Thread Ben Finney
Joe Smith unknown_kev_...@hotmail.com writes:

 Ben Finney ben+deb...@benfinney.id.au wrote in message
 news:874oyuq3ki@benfinney.id.au...
 Joe Smith unknown_kev_...@hotmail.com writes:
 
  This new version is the very definition of a function too trivial
  to copyright
 
 That's a pretty strong assertion. The “very definition of” as
 defined where? Or what, exactly, are you claiming?
 
 That was intended to be hyperbole.

In an area that is so riddled with absurd realities as copyright law,
hyperbole is often indistinguishable from an earnest attempt at
accurate description. So, intentional hyperbole is a risky way to
communicate an understanding of copyright law.

 But, surely if any code could reasonably be claimed to be too
 trivial for copyright protection to apply, that work could.

I wouldn't think so. In writing it, you made a number of creative
decisions that could have been made differently, and hence it's a
creative work.

 “Difficult to read” isn't the same thing as “non-creative”. On
 the contrary; you have demonstrated that someone can creatively
 decide on different creative expressions of the same work, to the
 extent that you contrast your expression with one that differs in
 its uses of variable names and whitespace.
 
 Yes, but use of the most trivially functional possible version
 minimizes the amount of creative content.

I don't think the word “creative” means, in copyright law, what you
think it means. (Mind you, it might not mean what *I* think it means
either, and I'd love to be edifimaculated by our actual lawyers.)

In normal language we say that a work is “creative” as a kind of
contrast with “dull” or “mainstream”, and I think that's the
meaning you're intending above. But that meaning doesn't seem
relevant.

My understanding is that a work meets the copyright-law meaning of
“creative” if, in creating it, decisions of expression were made
that could have been made differently to achieve an equivalent result.
The resulting expression might be terribly exciting or it might be
yawn-worthy, but the creativity that concerns copyright law is in the
creative *process*, as judged by the fixed expression.

Or, in other words: just because an expression is dull (or otherwise
fails the common-usage meaning of “creative”), doesn't impact
whether it meets the definition of “creative” for determining the
applicability of copyright.

 If I write a phonebook, in which I hand selected the order of names
 such that they fit an acrostic, that may very well be be subject to
 copyright.
 
 But it is well established that the standard alphabetical ordering
 is purely functional (non-creative).

Yes. I agree with your conclusion in this new example, by my argument
above. I don't see that your Javascript example is non-creative by the
same argument.

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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-16 Thread Ben Finney
Sean Kellogg skell...@gmail.com writes:

 On Sunday 15 February 2009 10:49:17 pm Ben Finney wrote:
  Moreover, I'm not aware of a valid legal theory that use of
  variable names or whitespace have any bearing on whether a
  particular work is subject to copyright.
 
 Then you aren't looking very hard. Of course, you already made it
 perfectly clear how you feel about copyright in general, but one of
 the central premises they teach you about copyright law in law
 school is that copyrights can be thin or weak. It's not to say
 that such a work doesn't have a *some* copyright, it is to say that
 one has to work VERY HARD to actually infringe it. Thin copyrights
 generally require verbatim copying to be infringed, where a more
 substantive copyright is easy to infring via derivative work or the
 theory whose name I can't remember that says you had access to the
 original, so you probably used it as a copy.

That's very interesting. I'm intrigued to know of such a distinction
being taught to copyright law students; it sounds like exactly the
sort of mapping to the real world that would be good to see more of in
these laws.

What basis does this have in the law itself, for those of us without
benefit of such instruction?

  Given all that, I'd be very wary of taking the above quoted claims
  as having any meaningful application.
 
 I must say Ben, you're entire email just drips of hash judgment.

I'm glad Joe took my message in the spirit which I intended, rather
than this mis-reading.

 To Joe, it would be nice if (if you are the original author of the
 clean-room code you provided) to give explicit notice of the license
 you are distributing it under so that Colin Turner (the original
 questioner) can package it up and provide a proper copyright notice.
 Beyond that, thanks for your efforts.

The main point of Joe's message was that he explicitly *doesn't* think
copyright applies to the small Javascript work as he presented it.
What reason, then, would you present for claiming (as you here imply)
that copyright *does* apply to that work?

-- 
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  `\later you're hungry again.” —George Miller |
_o__)  |
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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-15 Thread Wesley J. Landaker
On Saturday 07 February 2009 06:21:55 Colin Turner wrote:
 ... the code is so astonishingly trivial ...

Given this, why not just take 10 minutes and reimplement it? 

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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-15 Thread Joe Smith


Colin Turner c...@piglets.com wrote in message 
news:498d8af3.7030...@piglets.com...

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Hi All,

I hope you can help and advise on this issue. I am packaging a web
application for Debian, I am also the principal upstream author. The
code is generally GPL v2 PHP. Over the years the project inherited, from
a side project, a small fragment of Javascript that has no explicit 
license.


The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
different variable names.

Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
(counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and
losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.

CT.

Code follows...

// Use one function for multiple text areas on a page
// Limit the number of characters per textarea




Here, is a clean room implmentation of a drop-in compatible (same argument 
order) function that will do the job.


function functionName(textObject,sizeRemainingObject,maxSize)
{
textObject.value=textObject.value.substring(0,maxSize);
sizeRemainingObject.value=maxSize-textObject.value.length;
}

Compared to the above it works the same, except that the second parameter 
will always be updated, to the number of characters remaining. Seeing as 
this appears to be intended to limit the size of text input in a textarea, 
while visually displaying the number of characters left in something else, 
that should be fine.


(Yes I've checked, and substring does the right thing here).

This new version is the very definition of a function too trivial to 
copyright, even the variable names and whitespaceing are as non-creative as 
possible. (Although I would recomend reformatting the whitespace used to be 
more readable).


Use it and be happy.

Joe Smith 




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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-15 Thread Ben Finney
Joe Smith unknown_kev_...@hotmail.com writes:

 This new version is the very definition of a function too trivial to
 copyright

That's a pretty strong assertion. The “very definition of” as
defined where? Or what, exactly, are you claiming?

You also seem to be under the misapprehension that “to copyright” is
something that a creator does to a work. It's not. Instead, copyright
is an automatic monopoly granted *to* the creator; under the Berne
convention, nobody decides “to copyright” a work.

Or, more briefly: copyright long ago stopped being a verb, and is now
a noun. It's now more akin to a very insidious attribute that slithers
into just about any human intellectual work usually uninvited, and is
very difficult to eradicate completely from the work.

 even the variable names and whitespaceing are as non-creative as
 possible.

“Difficult to read” isn't the same thing as “non-creative”. On the
contrary; you have demonstrated that someone can creatively decide on
different creative expressions of the same work, to the extent that
you contrast your expression with one that differs in its uses of
variable names and whitespace.

Moreover, I'm not aware of a valid legal theory that use of variable
names or whitespace have any bearing on whether a particular work is
subject to copyright.


Given all that, I'd be very wary of taking the above quoted claims as
having any meaningful application.

-- 
 \ “On the other hand, you have different fingers.” —Steven Wright |
  `\   |
_o__)  |
Ben Finney


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-09 Thread Ben Finney
Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net writes:

 On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
  1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not
  knowing the code to write code doing this for you and use that
  code.
 
 Does that actually work? The description is a derivative work of the
 code;

Here's an analogy that I think demonstrates why your assertion isn't
so:

Person A has written a novel. Person B can write an encyclopedia
article that describes in detail (but in their own words) that book.
Person A's copyright is not infringed because person B did not make a
derivative work of the book.

Likewise, I don't think a prose description of the operation of a
program is thereby a derivative work of the program.

-- 
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  `\ but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.” —Donald |
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Ben Finney


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-09 Thread Bernhard R. Link
* Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net [090209 05:39]:
 On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
  1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not knowing the
  code to write code doing this for you and use that code.

 Does that actually work?  The description is a derivative work of the code;
 the new code is a derivative work of the description and therefore the old
 code.

Again, I've no legal training, so all educated guesses, ask a lawyer if
you want to be sure.

I think the main point of that is to make the description in a form that
is not a derivative work. The form is monopolizeable, the ideas and
algorithm behind it are not. Thus a description that only describes
parts that are not protectable should effectively cut all chains of
copyright. (This of course requires that the description is only
describes the ideas and algorithms and is nothing like first there is
an if, then a open parenthesis, then...).

Note that I do not claim this is the only way, just that is a way so
safe that I cannot immagine any judge to see any problems there...

Hochachtungsvoll,
Bernhard R. Link


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-09 Thread Sean Kellogg
On Monday 09 February 2009 03:08:14 am Bernhard R. Link wrote:
 * Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net [090209 05:39]:
  On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
   1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not knowing the
   code to write code doing this for you and use that code.
 
  Does that actually work?  The description is a derivative work of the code;
  the new code is a derivative work of the description and therefore the old
  code.
 
 Again, I've no legal training, so all educated guesses, ask a lawyer if
 you want to be sure.
 
 I think the main point of that is to make the description in a form that
 is not a derivative work. The form is monopolizeable, the ideas and
 algorithm behind it are not. Thus a description that only describes
 parts that are not protectable should effectively cut all chains of
 copyright. (This of course requires that the description is only
 describes the ideas and algorithms and is nothing like first there is
 an if, then a open parenthesis, then...).

Just to add a bit more weight here, the above is more or less correct. When we 
talk about functionality we are, by definition, talking about patents. When we 
are talking about expression we are, by definition, talking about copyright. 
While the same physical object can be protected by both copyright and patent 
simultaneously, the two legal theories protect different aspects of that 
physical object and there is no overlap. Which means that if you can describe 
the javascript fragment at a purely functional level, then you are only 
describing those parts that are subject to patent, in which case you are free 
to reimplement that code provided no patent has been granted to the original 
inventor. Debian's policies on patents have been fairly forgiving in the past 
(essentially only worrying about patents which are being actively enforced), so 
I think the clean-room development idea being proposed is likely the safest 
route to go.

But be certain to only describe functionality... once you start talking about 
implementation you enter into the world of creative expression, and now you are 
infringing on the copyright. But honestly, the function is trivially easy to 
describe in a pure functional sense and should take someone familiar with 
javascript all of five minutes to write once they understand what you are 
asking for.

-Sean


-- 
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e: skell...@gmail.com
w: http://blog.probonogeek.org/

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. 
We are the ones we've been waiting for. 
We are the change that we seek. 


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-09 Thread Gunnar Wolf
Ben Finney dijo [Mon, Feb 09, 2009 at 07:24:22PM +1100]:
   1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not
   knowing the code to write code doing this for you and use that
   code.
  
  Does that actually work? The description is a derivative work of the
  code;
 
 I don't think that's true. A derivative work is one that, in the
 judge's opinion, re-uses part of the original creative expression. If
 you express entirely in your own terms (modulo terms that have no
 other reasonable alternative, such as API names) how the program
 functions, you have not made a derivative work.

If you confuse patents and copyright, it might be true. However,
copyright deals with the exact, specific implementation
(materalization) of ideas or other creative forms, not the ideas
themselves. 

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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-08 Thread Walter Landry
Colin Turner c...@piglets.com wrote:
 Hi All,
 
 I hope you can help and advise on this issue. I am packaging a web
 application for Debian, I am also the principal upstream author. The
 code is generally GPL v2 PHP. Over the years the project inherited, from
 a side project, a small fragment of Javascript that has no explicit license.
 
 The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
 available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
 have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
 to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
 it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
 different variable names.
 
 Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
 (counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and
 losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.

The FSF's guidelines used to specify [1]

  For the sake of registering the copyright on later versions of the
  software, you need to keep track of each person who makes
  significant changes.  A change of ten lines or so, or a few such
  changes, in a large program is not significant.

That wording has changed to remove the explicit reference to ten
lines.  So in the copyright file, I would mention that this fragment
does not have an author and mention FSF's old position.  I do not know
how the ftp-masters will react, though.

Cheers,
Walter Landry
wlan...@caltech.edu

[1] http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2000-10/msg01035.html


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-08 Thread Ken Arromdee
On Sat, 7 Feb 2009, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
 1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not knowing the
 code to write code doing this for you and use that code.

Does that actually work?  The description is a derivative work of the code;
the new code is a derivative work of the description and therefore the old
code.  I know about reverse engineering a BIOS, but that's really just a
defense against direct copying, as far as I know.


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License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-07 Thread Colin Turner
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Hi All,

I hope you can help and advise on this issue. I am packaging a web
application for Debian, I am also the principal upstream author. The
code is generally GPL v2 PHP. Over the years the project inherited, from
a side project, a small fragment of Javascript that has no explicit license.

The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
different variable names.

Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
(counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and
losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.

CT.

Code follows...

// Dynamic Version by: Nannette Thacker
// http://www.shiningstar.net
// Original by :  Ronnie T. Moore
// Web Site:  The JavaScript Source
// Use one function for multiple text areas on a page
// Limit the number of characters per textarea
// Begin

function textCounter(field, count_field, limit)
{
  if(field.value.length  limit)
field.value = field.value.substring(0, limit);
  else
count_field.value = limit - field.value.length;
}
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkmNivMACgkQ0SwfPjLnaZaiwACg3ImCStS5izO6jE3BFnOHQvOx
jf4An1eRFj4LLajOGXtZJtreigSrKh/9
=Is8p
-END PGP SIGNATURE-


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-07 Thread Anthony W. Youngman
In message 498d8af3.7030...@piglets.com, Colin Turner c...@piglets.com 
writes

Hi All,

I hope you can help and advise on this issue. I am packaging a web
application for Debian, I am also the principal upstream author. The
code is generally GPL v2 PHP. Over the years the project inherited, from
a side project, a small fragment of Javascript that has no explicit license.

The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
different variable names.


This is your clue.


Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
(counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and
losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.

If this is true, the code has no copyright therefore there is no 
problem. I'm not sure how you'd document it, but just put a reference to 
them that says assumes these snippets cannot be copyrighted because 
they are too trivial. replace if required.


I'm not sure how the Debian ftp-masters will take that, but if there 
really is no other way of re-implementing it, then it truly is 
unprotectable.


Cheers,
Wol
--
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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-07 Thread Bernhard R. Link
* Colin Turner c...@piglets.com [090207 14:43]:
 The problem I have is that the code is, like so much JS, sitting
 available, apparently for general consumption on several websites. I
 have been unable to acquire a license from any of the authors (no reply
 to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
 it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
 different variable names.

 Any guidance on what I should do? The functionality the code provides
 (counting and capping characters in textareas) is quite useful and

1) The safe way: See what it does, describe someone else not knowing the
code to write code doing this for you and use that code.

2) Do as in 1) but describe it to yourself. You should be really sure
you'd write it that way even without knowing the code...

3) check if it is really trivial enough to not be protected by copyright
laws. Note that most usual conditions to be elegible for copyright are
waved for computer programs. (As almost every computer program would
fail the non-triviality conditions for written texts, and compiled
binaries the condition to be man-made).
I guess checking this is quite complicated, as the different countries
have different rules.

The code really looks simply, but I do not know if any judge would agree
that code that comes with multiple author information, contact
information and comments can be deemed so trivial that it is without
copyright. (so better ask some lawyer to be sure if you want to go this
way).

 losing it would probably cause dataloss in use of the application.

What happens if javascript is disabled? Please make sure the application
also works then (or at the very minimum, fails gracefully).

Hochachtungsvoll,
Bernhard R. Link
-- 
Never contain programs so few bugs, as when no debugging tools are available!
Niklaus Wirth


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Re: License issue on tiny Javascript fragment

2009-02-07 Thread Colin Turner
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Hi Anthony,

Anthony W. Youngman wrote:
 to emails) and the code is so astonishingly trivial it's hard to see how
 it could possibly be re-implemented without it being the same code with
 different variable names.
 
 This is your clue.

 If this is true, the code has no copyright therefore there is no
 problem. I'm not sure how you'd document it, but just put a reference to
 them that says assumes these snippets cannot be copyrighted because
 they are too trivial. replace if required.
 
 I'm not sure how the Debian ftp-masters will take that, but if there
 really is no other way of re-implementing it, then it truly is
 unprotectable.

It's precisely how to document it for ftp-masters that is worrying me.
However, thanks very much for the input and clarification.

CT.
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