Snippet copyright

[Underflow]

Thanks Simon.  Is there a secret handshake needed to get an answer from the copyrightagent email?  It's only been a week, but... well, anyway. 

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PJS wrote:

If I understand what you said here, NI owns the copyright on all developed code, because it includes 'pictures' developed by NI as representations on logical objects?

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No.  NI owns the pictures and underlying chunks of code, etc.  They license them to the end user (you), and the end user owns the unique combinations derived from NI's images and code.  This unique combination is the Authorized Application, which apparently can (but doesn't always?) include snippets.  This is no different than using .NET or Java libraries.

I have a few more questions, but I'll try to address them via email.

Joe Z.

[Ray.R]

Sorry to revive an old thread..

So if we produce code examples and post them to the site, who is considered the owner of the algorithm that was posted? Does it become public domain?

I'm curious..  

[hecmar.arreola]

Ray.R - Based on the above discussion, if you legally obtained distribution licenses (NI Developer Suite or whatever) from NI then any derived work is your IP to license out however you want.  I would imagine if you don't specify the usage license and perform the necessary steps to ensure that someone downloading the code agrees to that license then it might become public domain.  But IANAL and am known for pulling things out of my...

[Underflow]

There are a lot of mixed terms.  This is my not-a-lawyer understanding.

Code samples are copyrighted by the owner (sometimes the creator, sometimes the company they work for).  By posting them here, you agree to the NI Terms of Use, but don't give up copyright to the material.  Those using it should (legally) still abide by the terms of any license posted on it.  Enforcing this might be hard.

NI is likely an exception to this, since the terms state: "you authorize NI to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate, translate and otherwise use the Communications and all related data, images, sound, and text for any and all purposes". 

Algorithms are different: they can't be copyrighted (although a particular implementation can be).  They can, in some cases, be patented.  In the case of distinctive descriptive terms, they can even be trademarked (like Google's PageRank algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank, which is both).

Public domain is a legal term, better described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain than I could do.

[Ray.R]

Thanks Underflow,

It was more of a rhetorical question 😉

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Underflow wrote:

NI is likely an exception to this, since the terms state: "you authorize NI to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate, translate and otherwise use the Communications and all related data, images, sound, and text for any and all purposes". 

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I was aware if that.  Typically, we "kinda" give code publicly, for whoever needs the help, to use. 

What went through my mind was more to this effect:  " oh yeah, I wrote some example a year ago and I could use it for myself"..  The company who took the code example (for their help) would not likely have any recourse against ourselves using the code we propered as an example while helping them..

This gets highly complicated, really quickly...

🙂