Re: A89: Me distributing roms


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Re: A89: Me distributing roms




If the order and placement of files on a storage media is significantly
unique, and there is significant reason for you to hold the rights to
it, and you own a lawyer who'll help you, then yes, you can copyright a
directory structure.

But /why/ would you want to copyright a directory structure??  Well, NDS
(novell directory services) is the system which Novell chose to use to
organize networks and network components.  Suppose I, as a contractor,
were hired by MegaCorp to design a low maintenance directory structure
which contained several thousand employees, computers and printers, and
a few hundred servers.

I send them the preliminary design, which they then duplicate, and send
it back to me saying they don't need my services after all, and were
able to develop a structure in house.  There aren't too many ways for me
to prove that not only did I do work for them, but that they are using
the work I performed.  One of which is to have a third party compare
work which can be proven to have been done by me, and the NDS which is
being used at megacorp.  They will also notice subtly planted copyright
strings in certian places of megacorp's nds.  Megacorp then pays me
several times my original price to settle out of court, and I hand the
copyright to the preliminary work to them.

While it is less likely one would copyright a file system directory
structure, the same could be said of web site design.  Designers spend
hours not on the web pages, but the structure of the site, so it's
easily navigable, and so it's not hard on the server.  I find
http://ubasics.com/adam/electronics/lcd/ easy to remember, and so it is
something which I copyright.  I really don't care right now if someone
else uses the same directory structure, but if someone copies a portion
of my website and uses it for purposes which I do not approve of, it is
one more item which I can use to keep them from continuing to do so.  It
is also a relatively simple and non-unique structure, which is a simple
sort by category.  I couldn't pursue legal action against anyone if they
used that structure alone without any other components of my site. 
Combine more and more components, though, and it looks more and more
like copyright infringment.

-Adam

Bryan Rabeler wrote:
> 
> You can copyright a directory structure?
> 
> Bryan
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "M. Adam Davis" <adavis@ubasics.com>
> To: <assembly-89@lists.ticalc.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 9:16 AM
> Subject: Re: A89: Me distributing roms

<snip> </snip>

> > The server
> > is theirs, and they hold the copyright to everything on it, down to the
> > directory structure...

<snip> </snip>

> > -Adam


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