News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on John Carmack on expert witnesses and 'non literal' copying. Parent comment

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.
[ Parent | on HN ]
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.

[ Parent | on HN ]