Re: [computer-go] Intellectual Property

[Thomas Johnson <thomas_johnson@xxxxxxx>]

You should get a lawyer to answer this question definitively. If you
work for an academic institution, they can undoubtedly provide you with
one, probably for free. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

That being said, code itself _is_ automatically copyrighted, both in
source and executable format. If you want to prevent other people from
using your idea in other forms though (e.g., reimplementing your idea
using their own code) you would want to patent it. You will definitely
need a lawyer to help you with that.

Additional references:
http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/index.cfm/catID/804B85E3-9224-47A9-A7E6B5BD92AACD48 (see in particular "Copyrighting Your Software -- Why Bother?")

Hope this helps.
Tom


On Fri, 2004-01-16 at 15:18, Robin Kramer wrote:
> Does anyone on this list know if comments in code are a natural language
> and therefore are protected by copyright laws.  If for example someone who
> wanted to write a paper contributed some code, would the comments in the
> code prevent someone else from usurping the idea and publishing a paper? 
> I know that the code itself is not sufficient to produce, a copyright,
> patent etc.  I am interested in protecting the rights of anyone who should
> want to share code, including myself.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Robin Kramer
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Thomas Johnson <thomas_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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