Sure, you can license them, but that license is unenforceable, because you don’t own the copyrights, so you can’t sue anyone for copyright infringement. And you’d have to be a fool to agree to a license for public domain material. You can do whatever you want with it, no license necessary.
because you don’t own the copyrights, so you can’t sue anyone for copyright infringement.
You can’t sue for copyright infringement.
You can, however, use content which is not able to be copyrighted and also still license (under contract law/EULAs) your product including terms prohibiting copying of the non-copyrightable information.
On Zeidenberg’s copyright argument, the circuit court noted the 1991 Supreme Court precedent Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service, in which it was found that the information within a telephone directory (individual phone numbers) were facts that could not be copyrighted. For Zeidenberg’s argument, the circuit court assumed that a database collecting the contents of one or more telephone directories was equally a collection of facts that could not be copyrighted. Thus, Zeidenberg’s copyright argument was valid. However, this did not lead to a victory for Zeidenberg, because the circuit court held that copyright law does not preempt contract law. Since ProCD had made the investments in its business and its specific SelectPhone product, it could require customers to agree to its terms on how to use the product, including a prohibition on copying the information therein regardless of copyright protections
You can’t copyright phone numbers, just like you can’t copyright generated code, but you can still create a license which protects your uncopyrightable content and it can be enforced via contract law.
Sure, but if it’s open source, I can just take that code without agreeing to your contract. Since it’s public domain, I can do whatever I want with it. You can only enforce a contract if I agree to it.
If someone 100% generates code to make software then the software isn’t protected by copyright.
That software could be distributed and licensed under an EULA and the fact that it isn’t protected by copyright means absolutely nothing as far as the EULA is concerned.
The copyright status and the ability to license a piece of software under contract law do not depend on one another.
The context of my reply is about LLM generated code and the downstream use of it in a product.
See:
LLMs themselves being products of copyright isnt the legal question at issue, it’s the downstream use of that product.
Assuming that the code is 100% LLM generated and uncopyrightable does not affect the ability to enforce license restrictions created via End User Licensing on downstream uses of that product.
A piece of software that is unable to be copyrighted due to being 100% generated can be licensed and can expect to have that license enforced via contract law.
Ah, ok. This is a conversation about Linux, so that doesn’t apply. Linux is open source, so it wouldn’t matter if someone wanted to enforce a EULA, anyone else could just take the source and do what they want with it.
Sure, you can license them, but that license is unenforceable, because you don’t own the copyrights, so you can’t sue anyone for copyright infringement. And you’d have to be a fool to agree to a license for public domain material. You can do whatever you want with it, no license necessary.
You can’t sue for copyright infringement.
You can, however, use content which is not able to be copyrighted and also still license (under contract law/EULAs) your product including terms prohibiting copying of the non-copyrightable information.
This was settled in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProCD%2C_Inc._v._Zeidenberg
You can’t copyright phone numbers, just like you can’t copyright generated code, but you can still create a license which protects your uncopyrightable content and it can be enforced via contract law.
Sure, but if it’s open source, I can just take that code without agreeing to your contract. Since it’s public domain, I can do whatever I want with it. You can only enforce a contract if I agree to it.
It doesn’t have to be open source.
If someone 100% generates code to make software then the software isn’t protected by copyright.
That software could be distributed and licensed under an EULA and the fact that it isn’t protected by copyright means absolutely nothing as far as the EULA is concerned.
The copyright status and the ability to license a piece of software under contract law do not depend on one another.
Linux is open source.
I’m not talking about Linux.
The context of my reply is about LLM generated code and the downstream use of it in a product.
See:
Assuming that the code is 100% LLM generated and uncopyrightable does not affect the ability to enforce license restrictions created via End User Licensing on downstream uses of that product.
A piece of software that is unable to be copyrighted due to being 100% generated can be licensed and can expect to have that license enforced via contract law.
Ah, ok. This is a conversation about Linux, so that doesn’t apply. Linux is open source, so it wouldn’t matter if someone wanted to enforce a EULA, anyone else could just take the source and do what they want with it.
That may be what you were talking about, but you replied to me and I was not having a conversation about Linux.
I know, I asked myself.
You replied to me, man. xD