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From: Woody on 27 Apr 2010 13:11 Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > R <me32(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > > > It was why he wrote TeX - so he could typeset his books without the > > > typesetters making a horrible mess of them (as they had been doing - he > > > was driven to write TeX due to frustration with poor quality work done > > > by others). TeX's just a side-show for Knuth - last major update in > > > 1983[1], last bug fix I heard of was the obY2K fix (very minor, not > > > needed to permit TeX to function, just a messed up data log issue). > > > > Yes. I used to have Concrete Mathematics (one of the co-authors > > of which was Knuth) and the remarkable typsetting was evident in > > that. It was, I might add, a wonderful book, very idiosyncratic in its > > approach. > > Knuth is. What other sort of person would decide, in a fit of > irritation at the typesetters, to write his own mathemtical typesetting > computer program /and/ the fount support to go with it? And then gets a > pipe organ fitted to his house? And then starts statistical analysis on the bible. -- Woody www.alienrat.com
From: Richard Tobin on 27 Apr 2010 17:45 In article <1jhm87s.1tv0ikmqu17c8N%real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid>, Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: >> Copyright isn't the ownership of ideas; it covers expression rather >> than the ideas themselves, though sometimes it is extended too far in >> that direction. >I'm not sure what you mean by that. Surely patents do that, too? It's clear enough in computer programs: you can't copyright an algorithm, only the actual implementation of it. If you invented quicksort, you couldn't protect it by copyright. Copyright would prrevent someone copying your actual code, but if they got someone to tell them how it worked and they wrote their own version it wouldn't be infringing, even if parts of it turned out to be textually identical. On the other hand, if you managed to patent quicksort, then any implementation of the algorithm would be infringing. It's similar with text, though I knew less about that. You can write a book about a boy who discovers that he's a wizard, but you probably can't call him Harry Potter. In copyright cases, it's a defence that you came up with the same thing independently. Not so for patents. And copyright only prohibits publishing; you can write a new Harry Potter story for your own private use. But you can't legally make a dual cyclone vacuum cleaner to clean your house. >There's no law against having anything inside your head Yet :-) -- Richard
From: Rowland McDonnell on 28 Apr 2010 11:42 D.M. Procida <real-not-anti-spam-address(a)apple-juice.co.uk> wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > Knuth is. What other sort of person would decide, in a fit of > > irritation at the typesetters, to write his own mathemtical typesetting > > computer program /and/ the fount support to go with it? And then gets a > > pipe organ fitted to his house? > > He fitted a pipe organ to his house because he was irritated with > typesetters? The two are linked, I feel sure. The TeXbook (and his other works) contain quotes from P. Schickele's magisterial biography of that strangely neglected member of the Bach family, P.D.Q of that ilk. > It's certainly better than seething with useless > frustration. Yep. So is deliberately mis-understanding a full stop. Rowland. (who might not have got the Peter's surname spelt right) -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: Gareth John on 28 Apr 2010 12:02 Dorian Gray <D.Gray(a)picture.invalid> wrote: > In article <1jhkk3x.1b6dvr74q16piN%g.john(a)PLUG.btinternet.com>, > g.john(a)PLUG.btinternet.com (Gareth John) wrote: > > > Such terms were certainly specified in my contract of employment with a > > Cambridge University department - they owned the rights to any > > product-innovative ideas or inventions I had while in their employment. > > That means you must have been hired as a post-doc post-2001, or as a > member of academic staff post-2005. Before those dates, employees owned > any inventions. Not quite - I was technical staff (a research assistant) in 1974-6. I remember having all the legal niceties of my contract explained to me by the benign elderly Prof. But the contract has long gone now, of course. One of 'my' inventions is sitting somewhere in a dusty vault in the Science Museum's collection. Never to be seen... or credited. Gareth. -- From Gareth John Please pull out the plug if you want to reply by email
From: Rowland McDonnell on 28 Apr 2010 15:23
Bernard Peek <bap(a)shrdlu.com> wrote: > Tim Streater wrote: > > >> If you are a creative person who does not mind being forced to give away > >> all your rights to all your ideas, not just the ones you come up with on > >> the firm's time and for the firm's projects, I'm sure that's acceptable > >> to you. > >> > >> But some of us think that it's grossly unjust for a firm to claim such > >> ownership. > > > > No different in any other comparable company, I would have thought. > > The law on this is pretty complex. In the UK the default situation is > that intellectual property that you create in the course of your > employment is owned by the employer unless there is a specific clause > saying otherwise. It occurs to me that that was *NOT* the case when I started working as a journo in, erm '93 IIRC. .... which mattered. The first firm I scribbled for didn't bother claiming copyright in the contract; the second firm did (Morgan Grampian employs lean and hungry lawyers). When was it changed, and what about all those people who suddenly found themselves losing their copyright despite their employment contract not being changed? [snip] Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking |