Quote:
Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome
That would be called a patent, and have nothing to do with copyrights. In these discussions it seems a lot of times people mix up patents vs copyrights vs trademarks.
|
Yes, definitely. There are also trade secrets in there, as well (which are more like the original "I'll pass it to my apprentice" way of doing things). I was actually not discussing copyright
per se, but the notion of Intellectual Property vs. Actual Property. (Since the motivation behind Patents and Copyright, at least, is similar).
It's correct to point out that books are subject to copyright, not patent, law. But the progression from the wild'n'crazy IP-free days is more clearly explained using patents, I think. At the root, they're both limited-time monopolies on the fruits of an idea.