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cc-licenses - Re: What happens to the GPL in FPGA & VLSI implementations?

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: What happens to the GPL in FPGA & VLSI implementations?
  • Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:05:38 +0000

On 18 Mar 2005, at 22:36, drew Roberts wrote:

These are not actual bits though, are they? Aren't they
gates, resistors, diodes, etc? Are ROMs made from masks?

There is no such thing as an "actual bit". The examples you give are all mediums that can be used to encode bits.

A bit must always be encoded in some physical medium. Let's consider other forms of information. An image must exist as dye on celluloid or canvas or as light on glass or walls. A text must exist as ink on paper or casette, or embossed shapes.

Likewise a bit must exist as magnetic pulses on a hard disk, optically etched chemical traces on a slab of silicon, or electrical states in the chemicals on another slab of silicon.

You may not be able to copyright a recipe for cake, that would be good and if
so, is good to know, ... but I just went and checked three cookbooks and they
all have copyright pages. So, if the recipes cannot be copyrighted, what
exactly is copyrighted in these books?

You cannot copyright an idea.
You can copyright the expression of an idea, an idea fixed in some form (e.g. writing).

The recipe is an idea. You can't copyright the recipe.
The particular recording and presentation of the recipe can be copyrighted. In particular you can copyright the typographic arrangement and the editorial content (your preamble to and discussion of the recipe).

- Rob.

--
http://www.robmyers.org/art - All my art, Creative Commons Licensed.
http://www.robmyers.orgt/weblog - Free Culture and Generative Art blog.





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