Quote:
Originally Posted by bojan
I think you have to make a difference between the appearance (image ) of this equation, and it's meaning.
They may well own the copyright of the appearance (perhaps how Einstein wrote it with his own handwriting on a piece of paper, and papers themselves) - but they can't copyright the meaning, or concept of what the equation and his papers describe.
The easiest way to circumvent the eventual legal problem (if there is any) is to use the different letters for energy, mass and speed of light in vacuum.
I remember a guy who tried to copyright the tone dial codes sounds (produced by your phone when dialling numbers which essentially sends the coded number to the phone exchange) as some sort of music he allegedly composed couple of years back ... and he get nowhere.
|
I think its a little more complex than this, though.
If I tried to register a company name or trademark as "E=mc^2", I'd have to request permission from the owners for the 'right to use' .. and they might well be within their right to deny me this. And if the variable letters were different, it wouldn't convey the same meaning which E=mc^2 now clearly has.
It seems amusing that if one can show that the equation was not originally part of 'Einstein's estate', then one could become quite rich … with very little effort.
Mind you, I think the point of the OP was more about setting the historical record straight .. which would seem to be a somewhat more minor issue, in comparison .. I mean Galileo didn't discover the telescope, did he?
Cheers