Copyrights for circuits

[Grant Richter]

There is an unbelievably vast number of electronics
texts dating back to the 1930s. While someone may
discover a unique implementation of a circuit, all an
engineer has to do is understand the underlying mathematics
of the function performed and design a new circuit using
some alternative method. This is how ARP got around
the Moog patent on filters. Same math, different circuit.

Virtually every circuit is, by now, in the public domain having
been published in a text book at some point. The analog
computing books are particularly exhaustive in their coverage
of circuitry and techniques. The courts are also reluctant
to place restrictive limits on technology since it is bad for
business (imagine if someone had patented the integrator
or sine wave).

The general paranoia that some company may steal your idea
from syth-DIY and make a vast fortune that is rightfully yours,
is just f*cking silly. You may be very proud of your little idea
or implementation, but thats only because you have not done
sufficient research to discover it was originally published in 1943.