Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[Hyman Rosen]

On 8/18/2010 1:59 PM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> In gnu.misc.discuss Hyman Rosen<hyrosen@mail.com>  wrote:
> > See? Copyright doesn't protect the idea in the program, but it
> > protects the text of the program.
> No, it doesn't.

Well, yes, in the United States, it does. 17 USC 102 says:

<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/102.html>
    Copyright protection subsists, ...
    ...
    In no case does copyright protection for an original work ...

So regardless of your philosophical objections to the
copyright of computer programs, in the words of the law,
copyright does "protect".