Copyright doesn't do the whole job, because it
only protects
against copying. If I figure out the process
and write my own code to do it,
without copying yours, you
can't win a copyright case even if my code's all but
identical to yours
That's kind of the whole point. If
I take
inspiration from your good idea and create a new and useful
thing based
on it, by my own effort and skill, without
ripping off your code, then
copyright has done its job. The
marketplace gets two competing but slightly
different
solutions, each more suited to some set of customer's needs,
and
both driven by competition to improve or provide better
value for
money.
If copyright did "the whole job", or patents applied
indiscriminately to abstract ideas or algorithms per se, we
would be in the
nightmare scenario of trying to scrape a
living in a feudal system of absolute
arbitrary monopolies
on human thought processes, with constant warfare between
IP
barons, and brutal legal measures to keep innovators from
competing with
them.
The "whole job" is not a job that needs done, whether by
more
powerful copyright law or software patents. ---
The emperor, undaunted
by overwhelming evidence that he had no clothes, redoubled his siege of
Antarctica to extort tribute from the penguins. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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