Netgpu and the hazards of proprietary kernel modules

Posted Aug 5, 2020 7:38 UTC (Wed) by nybble41 (subscriber, #55106)
In reply to: Netgpu and the hazards of proprietary kernel modules by Wol
Parent article: Netgpu and the hazards of proprietary kernel modules

> (I believe that SCOTUS ruled that the string "copyright (C) Nintendo" was required for interoperability because the console checked for it, and therefore Nintendo couldn't claim copyright, or passing off, or anything else to stop competitors using it. Something like that anyway.)

It wasn't just a string, it was an actual image of their logo which was supposed to be displayed during initialization for "official" games. If a game didn't embed the logo then the console wouldn't run it. The ruling granted competing developers permission to embed the image in their games for the purpose of interoperability without licensing the image from Nintendo. By making the logo image a required part of the functional interface Nintendo basically forfeited their copyright over it.

There have been similar cases where various parties attempted to use copyright (and the DMCA) to block things like third-party ink cartridges. Those haven't been any more successful. The courts have been pretty consistent in upholding the principle that copyright does not extend to functional elements of a design required for interoperability.