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This is a very interesting intellectual property issue. Can I copyright (Diffuse + Specular) ** gamma? How about can I copyright my conservation of energy trick Diffuse(Diffuse_Value = 1 - Specular) + Specular?

These little tricks they don't seem to be sensible as individual pieces of intellectual property.

But what about my Loom shader that is 140 nodes? Clearly that is in the realm of copyrightable, no?

There seems to be a belief that shaders are math formulas and math formulas cannot be copyrighted. Before anybody brings that up, let me dispel that notion. All computer software expresses math formulas (Boolean algebra and predicate calculus may be unfamiliar to some, but it is math). I have been involved in the development and use of techniques to create provably correct software via mathematical modeling. Just because some math underlies an implementation of something, does not make that implementation freely unprotected.

So - making a GC version of my Loom, by taking my 140 nodes and adding a couple Pow nodes, is that copyright theft or not? I think it is for sure, because it is so freaking big and so impossible to claim there is no intellectual property there.

But what about a RebelMommy skin shader, with say 9 nodes? Is that fair game for you to copy and tart up with GC? 

How about 3 nodes?

Where is the line?

No idea. Mathematical formulars aren't copyrightable here in Germany, I think they aren't copyrightable in the US either. You would need a patent for that. 

So, your loom shader most probably is copyrighted. But I may re-create it. As long I make something different, it would no longer be the same shader. If I use matmatic for generating the shader it may even look eactly like your shader, even if I used my own source file. IANAL, but this does not sound like there is a simple way to draw a line.

We would need compiled shaders to really be able to protect them suitable. But then, you could no longer fiddle around with the parts of it, just with the parts which the creator wanted you to. IRC, that's the way most shaders for D|S work. 

A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
-"Amazing Grace" Hopper

Avatar image of me done by Chidori.