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The Post-Copyright Era of Software (nibzard.com)
6 points by speckx 7 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


Two qualifiers.

Copyright applies to the work artifact and not the execution context, which is why source code has copyright protection that is enforceable while copyright isn't really enforceable against binaries. Its also why binaries are licensed separately from the source code, such as EULA verses code license.

Secondly, existing US case law says bots and AI cannot receive copyright protection as code authors. In the US all source code is protected by copyright by default as is any original written work, but if it can be proven software was written by AI then the work becomes beyond defense, which is a void in law. Its not the same as public domain. The only distinction is in regards to second and third order consequences which is clear for public domain works, but not so clear for indefensible works.


There never should have been a copyright era to begin with.




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