Speech is simply patterns of sound waves, which are mathematical wave equations. Speech can be modeled mathematically just as easily as any computer program.

Also, a programming language is, as its name implies, a language, which is also what we call those sound waves we make.

Since we mostly agree that we should be able to copyright particularly creative things we say or write down in a spoken language, one could well argue that we should be able to do the same for particularly creative things we write in a computer language.

Just because something can be modeled mathematically does not automatically make it some sort of natural phenomenon that we cannot copyright. A program isn't any more mathematical than speech: a program is patterns of electrical signals which we can model mathematically, but a program is not some kind of direct manifestation of a property of the world that was already there before the program was written. Remember that math itself is something that we have invented to describe what we perceive, and that it is not, in and of itself, a property of the world.

That having been said, I agree with you that something is different about software. Unfortunately IANAL and perhaps I can't articulate why I think that way.

Thank you! Mod parent up! And if I were a cell provider I'd probably want to save the information too... I'll bet they get some great statistics that really help them reduce their net traffic.

There is a certain intellectual freedom associated with programming. Parent, you are of course right:

What I don't understand is why people aren't doing just that. Most of us program because it's fun, but it's just not fun when you're limited. Yes, when I program for fun it is all about me, and damnit, I deserve to be able to do what I want. That's why I use Linux :)

So... why are you people still developing for iPhone? Put your money where your mouth is.

And if you use Chrome you might as well say this too.

I'm a student at UVA, and I must say this doesn't sit well with me yet.

I don't want to have to carry my laptop around all the time
I want to be able to work in a room full of other engineers whom I can talk to
I want to be able to use a computer when mine isn't working
I use linux... what am I going to do when some teacher makes me use windows, if I can't use a computer lab?

If it's to save money... maybe they should try not leaving all several hundred of our puplic computers on all night, and for the whole summer and winter vacations!

Seriously! That was the first thing I noticed in the article. "The Milky Way is rotating at a speed of 161,000 km/h..." What the hell does that mean?

The argument is fine.

A gymnast does predefined vault. That vault also has a predefined maximum score. Not every vault can get a 10, even if executed perfectly.

That prevents this from happening:
one gymnast does a phenomenal hand-spring and gets a perfect 10. The next gymnast does an octuple back-flip, 12 rotations, writes down the proof to Fermat's last theorem, then stumbles an inch on the landing, getting a 9.8 for the unacceptable stumble.

So only an extremely difficult vault has a starting value of 10. The same is true for diving.