[OT] Where ill conceived copyright laws can lead

[Dr. Hawkins]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 10:26 AM, Lynn Fredricks
<lfredricks at proactive-intl.com> wrote:
> The supremes could come back with something broad and
> draconian, which in turn could up-end almost every aspect of trade in the
> USA. Or nothing could happen. Or whatever. In other words, another day in
> SCOTUSville.

As an attorney . . . I expect a *very* narrow ruling on this.  It's a
crummy fact pattern for any broad ruling, and has nothing to do with
the alarmist articles.

. . . and . . .

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 12:39 PM, Richmond <richmondmathewson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 1. Once upon-a-time somebody thought up the idea of a computer program
> called a "word processor";
>
> How come all those producers of Word Processing programs  (MSW, Apache OOO,
> LibreOffice,
> Calligra, et al) aren't paying royalties to that person.
>

The term predates computer programs for that purpose.  There was a
machine called a "word processor" at the bank my mother worked at in
the '50s.  It was basically a Selectric with a paper tape reader.  It
would type away, until it hit a field, at which point it would wait
for someone to type that in, and then type until the next one.

I believe that the paper was in a loop.

Also, given that technology, there should have been machines with
either a second tape reader (for names), or a punch card reader
(again, for the data).   No technological reason not to do so . . .


>Or, put it another way, if Shakespeare were alive could he sue the pants off the producers of 'Westside Story' >because they ripped-off 'Romeo and Juliet'?

Probably because the only original plot he ever wrote was the Tempest,
his final play; the rest were all retellings of existing stories . . .


On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 1:40 PM, Bob Sneidar <bobs at twft.com> wrote:
> Or put it yet another way. Since Solomon coined the phrase, "There's nothing new under the sun", shouldn't we all be
>paying his descendants royalties on every idea we have?

Well, there are conspiracy theorists who basically claim we do . . .

In a lighter vein, you've seen the list of reasons God was denied
tenure at the university, haven't you?  From memory . . .

1) OK, he created the world, but what has he done recently?
2) He is accused of destroying the evidence when an experiment went poorly.
3) He only has one publication.
4) it was in an obscure language.
5) some folks question whether he wrote it himself.

-- 
Richard E. Hawkins, Esq.
(702) 508-8462