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by Zambyte
971 days ago
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> Even for source code, the US does not offer copyright to programs that are simple enough to have effectively one way to accomplish the desired function I think the fact you use the word "function" here is extremely telling. Writing code is obviously in a closer intellectual domain to designing a car engine, than it is to drawing a picture. Maybe you have ground to stand on when talking about things like code golf which could be analogous to poetry. But no, the vast majority of code is not the product of artistic expression. It is the product of functional desires. Not sure why you're trying to make an argument about trivial software. The same is true about trivial art: draw a black square on a white canvas. Good luck claiming copyright for that. |
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There are so many different styles and designs when implementing any nontrivial underlying functional specification, and the preferences, choices, skill, and aesthetic of individual programmers definitely shine through. The ways you and I would find it straightforward to write a given program and the way I would write the same program are very probably recognizably different, beyond purely functional programs like the one I gave.
The existence of an underlying functional desire does not change the necessary artistic element in how to achieve that desire. Even in the traditional art world, an underlying functional desire is often more present than you think. Many artworks throughout history and even today are in fact commissioned, whether explicitly per-piece or through a patronage or employment relationship. A commissioned artwork is trying to satisfy either the specifications or the desires of the client. And among those which aren’t commissioned, like personal photographs, the underlying desire is often a functional one of remembering an occasion, despite the many clearly copyrightable artistic choices and skill required to create the work.
The black square on a white canvas example could very well be copyrightable, and I’d even guess that it usually is. Your functional specification still leaves the artist much freedom to choose the dimensions, relative positions and angles, exact shades of color, and materials of both the black square and the white canvas, as well as the shape of the canvas. Many ways to do it - and, importantly, no obvious one straightforward way to do it as there is in my trivial programming example.