Moral Miseducation in the Library

https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/moral-education-in-the-library/

by nixtaken • 6 years ago

1 2 6 years ago

kirstenhacker.wordpress.com

This whole debate is very applicable to the world of software. In fact, I believe that computer programs are legally considered to be works of literature (although I'm sure it's more complicated.)

The authors argument is roughly "you're not allowed to fork my proprietary project because it's proprietary," while the school librarian has an opinion that I would consider to be more copyleft. I tend to agree with the librarian.

I think that writing a book that uses major plot details from another book without copying them verbatim is not illegal. That would be analogous to writing a program that does the same thing as a proprietary program. I argue people should have the right to do this for books just as they should have the right to do this for programs.

nixtaken• 6 years ago

You can use major plot details from other books, the issue is how many and how sequentially arranged they can be. This author is dealing with several people who sat down and sequntially copied 35-45 plot twists/details on a page by page basis.

If you take 45 sequential, critical, unique lines of code or equations from a patented, copyrighted project, you could be in a lot of trouble. I think it is okay to take less than 14 sequential, unique plot elements but I'm not sure about how this would apply to lines of code made up of proprietary equations.

Moral Miseducation in the Library

Related Stories