Copyright - expression of an idea

[warley1]

What is the name of your state? Ca
I understand that under copyright law you can copy an idea but not the expression of an idea. What does that mean in reality? If say, I see a website that offers online treatment say for stress management and uses an approach of establishing a problem, rating the severity of a problem, asking a user to set goals and rate the achievement of those goals. If I wish to write my own version of this website using different software with a completely different user interface without copying any code, text, images or media files but using the same treatment approach am I likely to be infringing copyright? I note that there are numerous wordprocessors, spreadsheets, space invader games. These all look similar, incorporate the same ideas. Why do they not infringe copyright law?

 

[atozcom]

You can not copyright or patent an idea.

An idea is worth nothing. Pie in the sky idea is worth nothing.

The implementation of the idea may be valueable. Therefore you may copyright and patent the implementation of the idea.

The idea that "conduct auction on the internet like ebay" is worth nothing until you can implement it in programing the web site.

Sure you can "implement" the function of a web site, word processor and speedsheet that essentially do similar things as long as you are not copying the code. Watch for the look and feel stuff, however.

You can write your web site and do the same thing. There are many way to skin a cat.

 

[divgradcurl]

understand that under copyright law you can copy an idea but not the expression of an idea. What does that mean in reality?

It basically means what is says. Copyright protects the creative aspects of a work; a good example often used is that, "boy meets girl" cannot be copyrighted, but "Romeo and Juliet" can. Another example is the phone book -- if you just made copies of the phone book at Kinkos, you would be violating copyright, but if you sat and typed in all of the phone numbers and made your own phone book -- even if you copied the phone numbers from an existing phone book -- that would not be violating copyright. You can't copyright facts, such as the actual phone numbers,only the creative layouit of the numbers is copyrighted.

wish to write my own version of this website using different software with a completely different user interface without copying any code, text, images or media files but using the same treatment approach am I likely to be infringing copyright?

This is a very fact-specific question that is not easy to answer without knowing everything. Changing the "look and feel" or a website may be enough, or it may not. If the treatment regimine is a "standard" regimine, then there should be no problems. However, if the original website creators developed their own regimine, then there may be issues if the new regime is "creative" in any way. You should probably talk with a lawyer experienced in copyright before making any big investments.

I note that there are numerous wordprocessors, spreadsheets, space invader games. These all look similar, incorporate the same ideas. Why do they not infringe copyright law?

Two things -- first, there is the idea v. expression issue discussed above -- since "boy meets girl", the idea, cannot be copyrighted, I can write my own love story without infringing on the Bard's copyright for Romeo and Juliet. You could write your own spreadsheet and, as long as you did not make use of anyone else's copyrighted code, you would be safe. If you incoporated a talking paperclip to help out however, that IS a creative work, agnd you would be infringing copyright at that point. The utility aspects of a spreadsheet are not copyrightable, but all of the creative bells and whistles are, which is why all spreadsheets do many of the same things, but there are differences as well.

Secondly, copyright only protects against someone else copying a work -- it is possible under the law for two people to completely independently create identical creative works, and for each of them to hold a copyright on the work. If you were born and raised on a desert island completely isolated from all forms of civilization and came up with Romeo and Juliet completely on your own, you would be entitled to a copyright. As you can probably guess, the evidentiary burden of proving that you created such a work COMPLETELY independently is extremely high...