22 Feb
2006
22 Feb
'06
8:19 a.m.
On Tue, 21 Feb 2006, Ross Vandegrift wrote:
On Tue, Feb 21, 2006 at 07:42:26PM -0600, Jan Depner
wrote:
A program is a
big integer when you store it on a hard drive. There is no
doubt of it. You can legally fill your hard drive with big integers.
But you cannot say that what you hear or see when running an computer
program (say game) is not something "that is not a big integer".
If you want to compare apples to apples instead
of
apples to colostomy bags how about explaining how software is different
from your latest song, novel, poem, picture.
A computer program can be written as a big integer. Moreover, a
computer program has no representation that is not a big integer. Since there is no difference between some big integer
and a computer
program, you must defend a copyright against either use.
You can take program with size of one megabyte. There are 8 magabits
which means that there are 2^8M different big integers of that size.
You can claim that the file containing a copyrighted program is yours
because your computer has generated it randomly. Let's hope police will
believe your explanation. In particular if your hard drive is full of big
integers that are identical with various expensive software packages.
Best regards,
Hannu
-----
Hannu Savolainen (hannu(a)opensound.com)
http://www.opensound.com (Open Sound System (OSS))
http://www.compusonic.fi (Finnish OSS pages)
OH2GLH QTH: Karkkila, Finland LOC: KP20CM