Solar wrote:
quok wrote:
In the US at least, typefaces are not copyrightable
Yet.
That was my thought.
Solar wrote:
If in doubt, it's always nice to have a source that says "PD".
Thank you, that was my reasoning for going through the effort.
montrom wrote:
Is it a violation of copyright to use a similar design as lets say the MSDOS console display? Such as using the format C:\blah\blah2\blah3> as your prompt...
As JackScott said, I wouldn't think so, but to shine light on why from a different direction, the MS-DOS prompt is configurable.
c:\<etc>> is the default, but you can happily set it to whatever you want. Maybe if your prompt defaults to the same and is also set
to it exactly the same way (some system variable being set to "$P$G"), there might, possibly be an issue, but even then, FreeDOS
seems to be okay so far. I don't think it's something to worry about, but if in doubt, being original is always your best course of action,
IMNSHO.
montrom wrote:
...and the loader might look like GRUB or the Windows boot menu.
As for GRUB, I doubt the authors would care either way, but I also doubt they would refuse to answer the question if posited to them.
In the case of both, however, I doubt that they would have two feet to stand on, as their menus look that way because they followed conventions
set by yet other systems. If someone were to come after you in a serious manner, it would be from further back in the timeline than either of
those. Also, and IANAL, I believe there's some kind of exception to trademark law by something becoming a de facto standard through habitual
failure to defend said trademark.