2009/10/21 François Chaplais <[email protected]> > Thanks for the feedback. I work in (applied) mathematics, and in this > fields patents are a no-no. You cannot patent a mathematical idea. The best > you can do is disseminate it and hope it will have a great number of > children (I will not digress on the muddy market of scientific publishing). > > For instance, JPEG is compression over a discrete cosine transform. The > DCT is not copyrighted, it is a mathematical transform. However, it seems to > me that incorporating into some code that runs on a computer system may make > it (the code) fit for some form of copyright; moreover, if it is embedded > into some hardware, the hardware may be patended. Is this right? >
Roughly - yes. Most IP protection relies on simple legal hacks, and the entire framework is pretty much a mess in the digital era. My favourite from of IP protection is the use of "Trade Secrets" - wickedly and quite stupidly effective. 2009/10/21 Lynn Fredricks <[email protected]> >From what I can see by all the patents coming out of Apple, you can patent > just about anything if you wrap it right in legalese ;-) > :) A nice quote from the current head of Creative Commons based on comparing todays legal climate with the 1920's "anything that makes Jazz illegal has got to be wrong" - or to take an older example imagine a world in which culinary recipes were subject to IP laws - good or bad for the restaurant trade? Luckily we do have options to help shape a more sane form of sharing, competing and cooperating. Abandoning law altogether is not an option - it will just be shaped and used by others. Personally I admire people who use it sensibly for social purposes. All law is code. _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
