Right. If you wrote a COBOL compiler, you could protect your compiler code under copyright, you could protect your manual, you could protect the layout of your interactive debugger screens.
But you can't protect the functionality of the language. I can write my own COBOL compiler, manual, and interactive debugger. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Schwab Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 8:19 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Programming languages can't have copyright protection, EU court rules This is not the code. This is the language specification. Someone could write their own version of your product. Then users could buy their application instead of yours and run their programs. On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:33 PM, Scott Ford <scott_j_f...@yahoo.com> wrote: > All, > > So how do you protect code, whatever language you have written in , in business ? > Without copyright, doesn't it imply , people can take you source and change it and resell it ...if the gave your source , right ? > > > Scott Ford > Senior Systems Engineer > www.identityforge.com > > > > On May 2, 2012, at 1:49 PM, Charles Mills <charl...@mcn.org> wrote: > >>> Can one replicate the 'look and feel' without copyright issues in >>> the EU >> now? >> >> I might add that "look and feel" might be subject to copyright protection. >> Copyright, again, protects *expression.* >> >> If I wrote a z/OS system monitor that cleverly displayed the status >> of started tasks as bouncing balls of various sizes and colors, that >> expression might be subject to copyright, but the function of >> displaying the status of started tasks graphically would not. >> >> Charles ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
