Re:John Carmack on expert witnesses and 'non literal' copying
by 794CD01 on Thursday February 02, 2017 @12:55PM
(#13552714)
No, it's more than Zenimax owns not only the code Carmack wrote while he was there, but also the design on which that code was based. If there were literal design documents written up, I think we would all agree that is clearly true. When the designs are all in one person's head, it becomes gray enough to take to court.
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Re:John Carmack on expert witnesses and 'non literal' copying
by erikpukinskis on Thursday February 02, 2017 @06:51PM
(#13556222)
Only the verbatim design documents are copyrighted. The ideas in them are protected as free speech.
Re:John Carmack on expert witnesses and 'non literal' copying
by njharman on Thursday February 02, 2017 @07:44PM
(#13556597)
Things don't need to be "protected" to be free. Free is the natural legal state. There has to be laws passed to grant monopolies. Hence why copyright, patent, etc are laws.
And "ideas" aren't a protected form of free speech.