[pp.int.general] Commercial use of functional works

[Reinier Bakels]

> I don't think it is so hard to distinguish commercial activities from
> non-commercial, as others already said.  But there is another question:
> which *commercial* activities should be regulated by copyright law and
> which should be free from such regulation?

The problem as expressed in the subject line includes a different one: what 
is a "functional work"? This notion does not really belong in the 
(traditional) copyright system: it is a "Fremdkörper", a clear case of 
"scope creep" where PPI should definitely oppose against. Copyright is about 
*publication* and *multiplication*, not about *use* (function). The notion 
of "functional works" treats regular works like software - which does not 
fit in the systemn of copyright as well. In the end, the effect may be a 
patent-like protection which is obtained as easy as copyright (and lasts 
until 70 years after the death of the author, instead of 20 years after the 
patent application).

The prime example of a "functional work" is a cookbook. The prohibition to 
copy cookbooks by copyright is bad enough - don't let cookbook publishers 
appropriate the *application* of ("functional") recipes.

reinier