The drifted SCO thread has opened a new arena. "IS there a place for a de facto IP freedom realm"

[Monty J. Harder]

On 10/1/07, Brian Kelsay <ripcrd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a hard time with understanding how the government via the
> courts can allow patent suits, copyright claims, et al ad nauseum when
> the person/company that sells the item disclaims all warranty for the
> product and even states that "it may not even be fit for the use it is
> intended."     Run with that Monty or someone.


Well, copyright is easy.  A book can by copyrighted regardless of any
fitness for use. This email is Copyright (c) MMVII Monty J. Harder (portions
Copyright Brian Kelsay). All rights reversed.

A computer program is no different WRT copyright.  I once wrote a package of
little DOS utilities for shoehorning programs into the upper memory block
corresponding to monochrome video, and explicitly disclaimed everything.
The only thing I guaranteed the package to do was take up space on hard
drives.

Now, patents are an entirely different kettle of fish as it were.  One of
the reasons I hate the term "Intellectual Property" is that it conflates
these things.  In order to get a patent, the thing you're trying to patent
has to actually work.  Arguably, this makes the burden of proof a bit higher
on patent holders than on copyright holders.
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