Re: [needs proofread] Legal Column on Threshold of Originality

I have proofread the webpreview, and attach a version with my
suggestions.  My file is generated from the xhtml generated by the
webpreview, but it is in .odt format to get the benefit of
highlighting my suggestions with the LibreOffice Track Changes
feature.

1.  "As a general rule, software source code is protected by copyright
by default.Copyright holders create Free Software by applying a Free
Software license to their code."  Insert a space between the two
sentences.

2.  "Creative works, such as source code, nevertheless must be
sufficiently original in nature before it can be protected by
copyright."  Replace "it" with "they."  English grammar.

3.  'What is exactly this “threshold of originality”, and are there
types of code that are not automatically protected by copyright?'  I
suggest changing the order of the first words to "Exactly what is", as
being more natural English usage for the question, although a wide
variety of word orders are correct.  (I feel that the exactitude is a
matter of the "what-ness" rather than the "is-ness").

4.  First Figure alt text:  "A laptop with some code showing in its
screen with the copyright symbol, the word copyright and a question
markt on the foreground"

(a)  Replace "in" with "on."  English usage.

(b)  Replace "markt" with "mark."

(c)  Replace "on" with "in."  English usage.

5.  "the piece of work has to be sufficiently original enough to
justify it being protected by copyright"  Remove "enough" as redundant
after "sufficiently."  Alternatively, remove "sufficiently."

6.  "Mitchell claimed that these images and charts were eligible for
copyright protection, while Sheridan claimed that as what amounted to
charts presenting data and information, the images were not
sufficiently original enough to clear the threshold."

(a)  Insert a comma before "as."  This pairs with the comma after "information."

(b)  Remove "enough" as redundant after "sufficiently."
Alternatively, remove "sufficiently."

7.  Second Figure alt text:  "Mitchell software showing ia table with
data on the right side and some graphics on the left one."

(a)  I suggest inserting "Chart created with" as the first words of
the sentence.  The image is of a chart, not of software.

(b)  I suggest replacing "Mitchell" with "Mitchell's."  This conforms
to the caption (and in my opinion is also better usage, although to
say "Mitchell" is not incorrect).

(c)  Replace "ia" with "a".

(d)  Remove 'one".  English usage.

8.  "The UK Court of Appeal on observing such images, noted that:"
Insert a comma after "Appeal."  This pairs with the comma after
"images."

9.  "choices had to be made into the fonts, colours, and other
stylistic elements constituting each chart; and"  Replace "into" with
"as to."  English usage.  (This is the formulation -- others are
possible -- that actually appears in the report of the case:
"Moreover, he has made choices as to what to put where, including such
matters as which commands to put into the ribbon and in what order. He
also selected what fonts and colours to use.")

10.  "made with their free and creative choices"  I suggest removing
"their."  The antecedent of "their" is "the author."  This is
singular.  Until recently, "their" was generally considered to be a
plural pronoun.  Whether in contemporary English "their" should also
be treated as a singular pronoun is a highly contentious issue.  The
easy solution is simply to omit the pronoun.  [I can't resist
reporting an exact historical parallel.  In modern English, the
pronoun "you," which used to be plural, is now fully accepted as also
being a singular pronoun.]

11.  "For the context of software, that would mean that most of a
developer’s original work would clear the threshold of originality and
warrant copyright protection, that is, if they wrote lines of source
code by themselves without reference to other sources."

(a)  I suggest replacing "of a developer's" with "developers' ".  As
discussed in my #10, above, this is another case where there is a
discrepancy between a singular antecedent and conventionally plural
pronouns.

(b)   I suggest removing the comma after "is."  As written, the commas
before and after "that is" appear to be a pair setting off that phrase
from the rest of the sentence.

12.  "there are nevertheless other voices asking for copyright or
similar legal protections over their investments in AI producing
code."  In the face of ambiguity, I suggest replacing "AI producing
code" with "AI and AI generated products."  I do not think that it can
be said that there is such a thing as "AI producing code," code that
produces machine learning based generative systems.  However, it is
not clear to me what is intended as the nature of the investments.  Is
it the huge investment necessary to create such a generative system?
Is it investments in the products created by such systems?  If one of
the two is intended, say which; my suggestion is to say both.  (I
applaud not identifying "AI" as being an abbreviation of "Artificial
Intelligence."  Sometimes, "Artificial Idiocy" is more apt.)

13.  'There is nothing that stops you from “claiming” copyright over
your own works'  I suggest removing the quotation marks.  (This would
be a real claim, not a feigned one, as the quotation marks suggest.)

14.  "In such situations, it helps your project to implement and
follow a strict compliance policy for code ingestion"  I suggest
inserting "for" after "helps."  English usage.  (I see an ambiguity as
to who is being helped, and how.  The antecedent of "it" is
recommended explicit licensing.  As written, the sentence says that
the licensing aids specifically in adhering to a strict compliance
policy for ingestion.   My suggestion changes the meaning to what I
think is intended, that with such licensing the project will be of
more benefit in general to others.)

15.  "While court cases have yet to provide an example directly
relating to software and source code, it has produced examples where
different European courts have different opinions over whether the
same piece of original work has cleared the threshold of originality."

(a)  Replace "it has" with "they have."  English grammar.  The
antecedent of "it" is "cases."

(b)  Insert "had" between "have" and "different."  English usage.
(The differences of opinion took place in the past.)

16.  "This was however not the opinion of the Belgian and Portuguese
courts, who took the opposing view of the Italian courts."

(a)  I suggest replacing "who" with "which."  In legal usage in
English, there is a fuzziness in the meaning of the word "court."  It
can mean an institution in which one or more judges decide cases.  It
can, however, also refer to the judges rendering the decisions, as in
the well-known phrase "May it please the court."  My preference here
is to refer to the institutions, not the individuals.  But "who" is
not incorrect.

(b)  Replace "of" with "to."  English usage.

17.  "In this example case"  I suggest removing "case."  This word is
used here to mean "instance."  While this introductory clause might be
appropriate in other contexts, in this particular instance of an
example there are three actual court cases being considered.

18.  "Works that are of an author’s own intellectual creation and made
with their free and creative choices will in the vast majority of
cases clear that bar."   I suggest removing "their."  See my #10,
above.

19.  "That being said, there will be certain types of minor works in
software, such as insignificant contributions, insignificant files
such as config files, or generic lines of code, that taken by
themselves, will not warrant copyright protection."  Remove the comma
after "themselves."  English grammar.  (An alternative would be to
insert a comma before "taken."  This would unnecessarily complicate a
sentence that already has four other earlier commas.)

20.  "so that they are able to discern which parts of their work can
and can be protected by copyright."  Replace the second occurrence of
"can" with "cannot."  I presume that this is what was intended.

On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 3:16 AM Ana Galan <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> our next Legal Column is ready and we want to publish it soon (most
> probably at the end of this week, beginning of the next)
>
> It would be great if it can be proofread. Translation, can also happen
> once it is published so no need to rush here.
>
> As usual, you can find it here:
> https://webpreview.fsfe.org/cgi/fsfe.pl?pad=1445 and in the document
> attached.
>
> Best and thanks a lot,
>
> Ana
>
> --
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