Re: n...

[wbdesnoy@acs2.acs.ucalgary.ca (Byron Desnoyers Winmill)]

Jeff Blakeney (CUTblakeney@home.com) wrote:
: If you modify a program and distribute it, you are definitely doing
: something illegal but if you are modifying a program for your own
: personal use, then I believe the law says you are okay.  After all,
: you own that piece of software.  Whether you decide to use it as is,
: modified slightly or erase the disk altogether is up to you.  Just
: don't go distributing it.

I believe that Canadian copyright law gives us the privilage to modify software
under copyright.  (This is according to a government website, not my
imagination.  :-)  It is a privilage which most licence agreements attempt
to deny users.

The other problem is that you do not buy software, you buy a licence agreement
which includes the software and manuals as an added convenience.  In fact, I
don't really know how copyright could apply to software at all since virtually
all software must be copied before it is used (at the very least, into the
computer's memory; modern software is copied from disk or CD to hard drives).

And what about second hand software where you never recieve a licence agreement?
I am fairly certain that 9/10ths of the software which I use is illegal since,
even though they are originals, the licence agreement was never offered when
the software was resold, or the previous user may have terminated the licence
by breaking one of the terms then sold the software and invalid licence to me.
I have no idea what those terms are and, personally, some of them I could never
agree to.  Some licences give the company the right to search your machine, and
go through my personal files.  Like hell they will.  (One was from the software
included with a text book -- I wonder if reading the book was agreeing to the
terms --, and another came with the software from a local ISP -- Telus --.)

Odds are that most people who use computers are breaking the law, even if they
don't use "pirated" software.  That doesn't give people the right to distribute
copies, but it is something to think about the next time you peek at a licence
agreement.

--
Stopped (SIGTTOU)         byron.
$

(c) copyright 1999 by Byron Desnoyers Winmill.
You are free to distribute and archive this message for personal use only.
Archiving this message for commercial purposes is expressly forbidden.