Reference The post that started it all In order to clear up the original questio

Question

Reference The post that started it all

In order to clear up the original question I asked in a provocative manner, I have posed this question.

If you learn an algorithm from an open source project, is it OK to use that algorithm in a separate closed sourced project? And if not, does that imply that you cannot use that knowledge ever again? If you can use it, what circumstance could that be?

Just to clarify, I am not trying to evade a licence, otherwise I would not have asked the question in the first place.

Explanation / Answer

IANAL. If this is of great concern to you, seek the advice of your attorney.

If you learn an algorithm from an open source project, is it OK to use that algorithm in a separate closed sourced project?

Yes. An algorithm is not eligible for Copyright, so there is no Copyright issue. It is merely a sequence of steps; a recipe for arriving at a conclusion from a given starting point. Copyrights cover expressions of ideas. An algorithm is neither an idea nor an expression of one; it is merely a sequence of steps to perform some kind of work and produce some kind of result; it's a recipe or a guide.

For software to be eligible for Copyright, it must be the application of algorithms in a larger work. Your particular use of an algorithm is eligible for Copyright protection, but the algorithm itself cannot be. (You can substitute "interface" for "algorithm" and the statement holds true, at least in the US.)

The patent issue is irrelevant to the question as posed.

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