[asterisk-dev] Asterisk Appliance?

[Kevin P. Fleming]

----- Steve Underwood <steveu at coppice.org> wrote:
> I think the schematic itself has copyright, like any other document.
> Its 
> the circuit which the schematic describes which has no copyright 
> protection. This is like not being able to xerox a page from an atlas,
> but sketching the map it contains is OK. For practical purposes, this
> means much the same thing as there being no copyright on the
> schematic. 
> However, I think its important to get these details right, or they
> seem 
> confusing. Why would this document itself not be protected, while all
> others are?

I (not being a lawyer either) believe you are correct; the same applies to PC board layouts. The layout itself is a copyrightable work, but the circuit description it embodies is not. As Robin already stated, ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expression of the idea can be copyrighted.

-- 
Kevin P. Fleming
Senior Software Engineer
Digium, Inc.