Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : Gerry Quinn
Date : Thu Sep 01 2005 12:30 pm

In article <1125485341.305149.314530@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 
robert.thorpe@antenova.com says...
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
> > In article <1125429596.199157.6770@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> > robert.thorpe@antenova.com says...
> > >
> > > Exactly, in the other professions mentioned it's the work product that
> > > copyright is applied to.  In programming source code is the product the
> > > programmer produces.  However, it's something completely different,
> > > object code, that the copyright is applied to.
> >
> > It's similar to a translation of a book, or a reproduction of a song on
> > a different medium.  A singer produces air vibrations which are
> > translated into digital or analogue data, and then to other data
> > encodings.  The copyright persists.
> 
> No it isn't.  You can listen to a singer and understand what they're
> saying easily, the same is not true of object code.

It is true that the digital codes you get can recreate something like 
the original waveform.  A better example might be an orchestra.  It 
could be difficult to recreate the original score from the sound made 
by a large orchestra.  This score would be analogous to source code, 
and the sound to object code.

> > > Even if an artist wants to steal from someone else they're quite able
> > > to steal the overall structure.  Many writers have written books
> > > deriving plots from others.  Many painters have gleaned insight into
> > > techniques by examining the work of others.  Why do programmers not
> > > have the same right?
> >
> > No programmer is prevented from watching a computer as it runs a
> > program.
> 
> No, but it doesn't inform in anything like the same way reading a book
> does.  Besides, at least in the US it's illegal to reverse engineer
> code.

It informs in quite a similar way to reading a book.  It does 
something, and it's up to you to figure out how it works.  Reverse 
engineering is like analysing the paint chemically.

> > Painters may not take samples of paint to analyse chemically.
> 
> They don't need to to copy the colour.

And you don't need to reverse engineer MS Office to write a similar 
program.

- Gerry Quinn

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