Date:         Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:07:06 -0500
Reply-To:     "Richard A. DeVenezia" <radevenz@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Richard A. DeVenezia" <radevenz@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      Re: Another OT: Copyright concern?
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu

"Huang, Ya" wrote:
> Hi there again,
>
> Suppose I saw a commercial product demo, and I liked the way how the
> data is presented to users. I know this product is very expensive with
> many fancy features. For my daily work, I'll be interested in about
> 50% of those functions. I then gave it some thought and came up a SAS
> based system that mimic the 50% functions I need, and another 50% is
> based on my own idea. Would this be considered a violation of
> Copyright?
>
> Thanks
>
> Ya

As I understand things, a feature set can not be copyrighted.  If you 'clean
room' develop the implementation of the feature set you should be free and
clear of concern.  If you used copyrighted code asif your own in the
implementation, well that's another bailiwick.

--
Richard A. DeVenezia
http://www.devenezia.com/