Re: Conversion filters; intellecutal property

[Ed Cray cray@xxxxxxxx]

Patricia (and the few others following this discussion):

Patricia Godfrey wrote in part:

"Ed's analogy of his books is not quite on all fours with a computer
program. A work of literature, in the widest sense, stands alone. Even in
the case of, say, an outdated history or physics text, it's evidence of
the prevailing scholarly opinion at the time it was written. And of
course the value of literature in the more precise sense (poetry, novels,
drama, belles letters) is independent of time: we still read (I hope)
Homer and Vergil, Dante, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. A sofware program is a
tool. A hex-nut driver designed for nuts measured in conventional measure
(inches) will be no use, no matter how otherwise well-designed, if the
country switches to metric and one cannot buy three-fifth-inch nuts."

To which Ed Cray replies:

But even tools may be patented, to whit, the Vise-grip pliers. Would you
deny the inventor his constitutional (Article I, Section 8) right?

Ed