Re: Where is the beef???

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On 5 Sep 1998 02:58:27 GMT, pfg@cs.rmit.edu.au (Paul Francis Gilbert)
wrote:

>If I may interject ;-), the real bottom line here is that copyright law is
>a weapon for the copyright owner to use. Period. So, Nathan, for example 

Copyright law is not a weapon.  It is not used for offense, it is used
for defense. Defense of the copyrighted material.

>didn't have a leg to stand on with his usual tirades against asimov, because
>while we may debate it's legality of archiving software unless specifically
>asked by the copyright owner not to, only the copyright owner has any power
>under copyright law to issue a "cease and desist" request.

The copyright holders have already place that "cease and desist"
request on their material when they copyrighted it.  For example, here
is the copyright info from Accolade's Space Station software for the
Apple II:

Company:  Accolade
Title:  Project:  Space Station
Platform:  Apple II

"The enclosed software program is copyrighted.  It is against the law
to copy any portion of the software on disk, cassette tape, or another
medium for any purpose.  It is against the law to give away or resell
copies of any part of this software.  Any unauthorized distribution of
this product deprives Accolade, Inc. and their authors of their
deserved profits and royalties.  Accolade, Inc. will seek full legal
recourse against violators."

They are specifically requesting that people do not give away or
distribute this piece of software.  Why would anyone think that this
company, which has already asked people not to give away or distribute
this program, should have to specifically request that the program not
be given away or distributed?

It would be extremely redundant to expect them to do so.  The
copyright and distribution restrictions on most of the software on
asimov already request the site to not make that software available.
In effect, the copyright holder has already requested that asimov not
make the software available even before it was ever uploaded.

So why is this stuff being made available on asimov?  It is asimov's
self-professed policy to not make software available that the
copyright holder has asked them not to distribute and as they have
already done that, why is it still being made available?

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    Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University on Delphi