Re: Corel's apt frontend
On Mon, Nov 01, 1999 at 07:58:20AM -0800, Bruce Perens wrote:
> > Which is what happens when you make a CD with a /copy of/ dpkg and a
> > /copy of/ get_it.
>
> Yes, but I don't see how that could be anything other than aggregation, and
> it's very, very clear how we treat aggregation. Copyright law doesn't care
> what programs do _when_they_run_ because it has no concept of "reference".
> It is blind to the fact that one program won't run without another.
<quote>
A ''computer program'' is a set of statements or instructions to be
used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a
certain result.
</quote>
While it's true that copyright law doesn't concern itself with reference
it's better to say that it doesn't care about the nature of the reference
than to say that reference hides part of the program from copyright law.
The machine instructions are the machine instructions. Copyright law
doesn't care whether you use clay tablets sequenced by a circus carousel,
it doesn't care if files even exist as an abstraction on the computer.
Why should it care that the instructions are distributed over multiple
files?
--
Raul
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