How Wolfram Alpha's Copyright Claims Could Change Software

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 30, 2009 @09:09AM from the my-patent-app-will-involve-prayer-wheels-and-combinatorics dept.

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister suggests that Wolfram Research's claim to copyright of results returned by the Wolfram Alpha engine could have significant ramifications for the software industry. 'While software companies routinely retain sole ownership of their software and license it to users, Wolfram Research has taken the additional step of claiming ownership of the output of the software itself,' McAllister writes, pointing out that it is 'at least theoretically possible to copyright works generated by machines.' And, under current copyright law, if any Wolfram claim to authorship of the output of its engine is upheld, by extension the same rules will apply to other information services in similar cases as well. In other words, 'If unique presentations based on software-based manipulation of mundane data are copyrightable, who retains what rights to the resulting works?'"

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Re:Monkey see, Monkey do by Anonymous Coward · 2009-07-30 10:35 · Score: -1, Troll

That explains why there's an infinite number of monkeys out there claiming they own every copyright.
No those are niggers. They just do it cuz some gangsta rappa on MTV told them it was a good idea.
Re:Wolfram alpha sucks anyway by WitheringtonSmythe · 2009-07-30 10:49 · Score: -1, Troll

So fucking what, still makes you a whore.
Re:They better not go there... by TheSpoom · 2009-07-30 16:30 · Score: -1, Troll

+1, Epic Win

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