Copyrighting trivial code

[Amos Shapir]

This has been discussed before, when in one release of SysV the file
/bin/true, which used to be an empty command file, had been crowned
with a 16-line copyright notice (automatically by some distribution-
creating utility).

The final answer given (by a lawyer) was: if you write Macbeth without
knowing at the time that it had already been written before, you may
copyright it as your own, and anyone publishing or performing it
(*your* Macbeth, not Shakespeare's) should pay you royalties!
Of course, the longer the creation, the harder it is to prove you
created it, rather than copy it.
-- 
	Amos Shapir
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
(011-972) 52-522261  amos%nsta at nsc 34.48'E 32.10'N