Code ins't property so cannot be stolen!

[Amil Patel]

WHAT!!! I know it a old news but I had to put a topic about this one and see what you lot think about the situations? I think it make people life easier who's doing a degree within computing or others. More info
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/12/code-cant-be-stolen/
Meaning anyone that writes a code or a game can be copy and paste by anyone and claims that he wrote the code. So, you cant sue the person but that extreme. Give your thought on the topic?
Thank you for reading the topic!!

[Duthomhas]

That's the same kind of bull crap as saying "pictures of inventions on napkins aren't property so they cannot be stolen". Funny how we have a patent office for things like that. Funny also how much money the "property" is worth.

[hanst99]

I didn't know that the concept of "intellectual property" was this foreign to the US.

Especially considering they keep trying to push legislations that supposedly are there to protect it that's a little weird.

[firedraco]

Meh, hopefully it'll get shoved farther up the chain where someone will fix it.

Sounds retarded as hell to me, honestly. If I write my novel on my computer, it's property, but this code (that theoretically could also be the novel with a clever precompiler) isn't? gg

[tition]

That's the same kind of bull crap as saying "pictures of inventions on napkins aren't property so they cannot be stolen"

What about math formulas? If someone uses a math formula I wrote/invented, did he/she steal it from me? (btw, I do have a few formulas on the arXiv, and even a few in an article in a published journal).

[Telion]

This is nothing new. We've been saying copyright infringement is not theft for years.

[Gaminic]

I think algorithms can be legal property, no?

I think the reasoning is that code is like a sentence: just a means to an end. A sentence isn't IP, but a story is (sort of). Probably someone higherup thinks that given a solution to a problem, there is only one way to implement it, thus it's only necessary to protect the solution, not the code.

[hanst99]

I think I got it now - the issue wasn't whether or not Code is property or not, but whether or not you can "steal" it. Apparently it didn't fit the legal definition of "stealing" so the guy was released because he was charged for the wrong things. It's still copyright infringement amongst other things.

[MrHutch]

Yeah, it can't be stolen, but it's still protected under copyright laws as literary works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright

[3hM2Nwbp]

In my experience, the only people that claim that "code is not intellectual property" are the ones that are aiming to take others work and release it as their own, usually for monetary gain.

It might sound a little harsh, but if I write a program that I expect should put food on my table for the next 6 months and someone comes along and snatches it out from under me, I'm not OK with that. :\

[ascii]

pictures of inventions on napkins aren't property so they cannot be stolen

Were you talking about the laffer curve... or was that just an example :o?

And so I feel like I stayed on topic, I open-source all of my piss-poor projects, so people are encouraged to screw around with it/redistribute. Anyhow, I can imagine how much that would piss someone (and me too) off if they were relying on the program as income.

[Duthomhas]

No, I wasn't thinking of the Laffer Curve. (I had never heard of it before now. :-O )

Many great ideas come to people in their everyday work, and they are scribbled down on the nearest portable thing usable with a stylus.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/03/05/7-brilliant-ideas-scribbled-on-cocktail-napkins-and-toilet-papers/

LOL

[ascii]

I didn't realize there were so many of those... I guess I should stop assuming people are talking about the laffer curve, then :o

[Disch]

The OP's article is incredibly misleading.

It's saying that code theft is not criminal, which it isn't.

However, it still does have civil consequences (which the article fails to mention, probably because it would damped their whole "tell half the truth but omit the most important part in an attempt to scare people" bullshit)


So basically: You can't go to jail for stealing code. But you can still get sued to hell and back.

That's the way it's always been. And the way it should be. The court made the right call here.


EDIT:

Fortunately a lot of people in the comments on the article also saw through this nonsense. Kudos to them. Screw that bogus "news" site.