Re: [dvd-discuss] Copyright ranges

[Jeremy Erwin <jerwin(at)ponymail.com>]

On Thursday, August 8, 2002, at 12:54  PM, Thomas Olsson wrote:
>
> It is conceivable that Google (yes, them again), could output a result 
> page
> matching an existing work (but in their own visual style of course).
> So the question still stands - have they really got copyright on every
> single permutation of output? I wouldn't think so, but that's what they
> claim.
>
I think the Feist standard should apply. In the case of your poem 
generator, the output is apparently random. In the case of Google, the 
output is the result of various algorithms based on references from 
other sites.

Feist limits copyright to "original intellectual conceptions of the 
author".

If the order of search results on a google page results from rigorous 
application of a set of original heuristics and rules, perhaps the page 
is subject to copyright.

As for the poem generator, does it rely on an original algorithm. Or is 
the result based on a pseudo-random number generator-- well known to the 
art?

Jeremy