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A comment on The US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation. Parent comment

Re:The US copyright office has struck down a major effort fo... by michaelt on Wednesday November 27, 2024 @04:37PM (#42260042)
> copyright lasts life of author +70 years. This is problematic imo.

Personally, I think copyright isn't so bad simply because of what it covers.

A patent can stop me making stainless steel razor blades. At all.

But copyright? I can write a story about a boy wizard going to wizard school and learning from a man with a long white beard and a robe with huge sleeves. The law just says I can't call him Harry Potter.

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Re:The US copyright office has struck down a major effort fo... by pinkmuffinere on Wednesday November 27, 2024 @06:36PM (#42260910)
I think this is accidentally a bit misleading. You _could_ write a story similar to Harry Potter without infringing copyright, but it isn’t just the name “harry potter” or some other substring that’s protected. There is a degree of similarity after which you’d be guilty of copyright infringement. I don’t know how that criteria is decided though.
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