[asterisk-dev] Asterisk Appliance?

[Steve Underwood]

Kevin P. Fleming wrote:

>----- 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.
>
>  
>
There was a problem related to this, where IC masks were not protected 
by copyright law. Laws were extended to specifically protect IC designs, 
and masks carry a symbol related to the copyright one, but its an M with 
a circle around it.

Steve