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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: "Greg London" <email AT greglondon.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 18:44:42 -0500 (EST)


Rob Myers said:
> On the copyrightability of circuits (but are chips circuits?):
>
> http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1996-02/0251.html

Finally got to peruse your links.
This one had a lot of round and round until the end when
someone pinged a lawyer who straightened them out:

:Although the circuit boards'
:plans are probably protected by copyright, the copyright is weak,
:because the boards are useful articles under section 101, and copyright
:does not protect industrial design. Even if the plans are protected,
:they are protected only in their aesthetic aspects, and then only to
:the extent that their aesthetic aspects are separable from their
:utilitarian aspects (see section 101's definition of "pictorial,
:graphic, and sculptural works"). Since the boards' layouts are
:probably dictated solely by function, and not by aesthetics, copyright
:protection is likely to be weak or nonexistent. Unlike architecture
:(before the 1990 Act), circuit boards are not designed for aesthetic
:viewing.
:
:Dr. Dratler
:William S. Richardson School of Law
:University of Hawaii

Chip layout would be dictated solely by function, not aesthetics,
so in answer to your question "are chips circuits?", I would
guess that they are treated similarly.

Which would mean that copyright no longer applies when you
convert an opencore.org piece of code into silicon.

I actually prefer the separation. Having hardware copyrights
would be about as bad as allowing software patents, and it's
bad enough having software patents.






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