"The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying." - John Carmack [1]
He's talking about software patents. I wouldn't equate that with API copyright. For many things discovering an algorithm to do something is just that - a process more about 'discovery' than 'invention.' As an obvious example in graphics, think about something like height mapped terrain. Anybody of reasonable cleverness who thinks on the problem of how to represent terrain in a 3D world is going to, at some point, "invent" height mapped terrain. Whole system APIs, by contrast, are more of a creative expression in that there are an infinite number of possible APIs. And for anything not completely trivial, wholesale copying there is only going to happen by overt and intended effort.
I'm not saying that APIs should or should not be protected by IP law -- only that it's a different issue since the odds of unintended replication approach zero very rapidly as the complexity of a system increase. So the question becomes whether intentional, and not strictly necessary, replication should or should not be allowed.
If the table of contents was dozens of pages long and you did it just so your clients could stop using the copyrighted book, I think they would have a case.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 31.3 ms ] thread[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20010624154450/http://www.voodooe...
I'm not saying that APIs should or should not be protected by IP law -- only that it's a different issue since the odds of unintended replication approach zero very rapidly as the complexity of a system increase. So the question becomes whether intentional, and not strictly necessary, replication should or should not be allowed.
then I copy its table of content.
then create my own text book (with unique material), where the table of content is from the above book.
Did I just violate the copyright of the first text book ?