On Tuesday 8 April 1997, Teresa Martin <tmartin[_at_]projectcool.com> wrote:
>
> ...
> HTML isn't programming; it's basically typesetter markup tags with a
> screen as the output device. Claiming to own HTML markup seems to me
> to be a little like claiming to own the right to use a paintbrush to
> make a certain type of stoke on a page.
>
> In print, can layout be copyrighted? ...
IF HTML isn't programming then why does the "L" stand for language? Many alternatives, particularly next-generation alternatives, are even more clearly computer languages. I've always considered HTML to be an interpreted language. It is, after all, a set of instructions on which a computer operates to produce a desired response. I have no problem in considering an interpreted program to produce a screen display, written in LISP or BASIC, to be a copyright work and I can't see the conceptual difference between that and HTML.
In the UK, the layout of a published edition is copyright for 25 years by virtue of s 8 and s 15 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, in addition to what artistic and literary copyright may also exist in the work.
Justin Watts
justin.watts[_at_]bristows.co.uk
Received on Mon Apr 07 1997 - 09:34:59 GMT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:24 GMT