Re: Usenet and copyrights

[xyzzy@ponyexpress.net (Fortran Dragon)]

My glass typewriter shows James McKelvey saying...
> This  is directed to the "FORTRAN DRAGON"
> The problem is, I have some  MS FORTRAN disks, which run on my
> A2 Soft Card. The disks includes compiler, linker and lib.
> 
> All that is needed to run FORTRAN 80 is an editor, I use Word Star
> 
> My question is ....Is it OK to give my friends copies of this?

	Why are you asking me? <grin>

	The people to ask are Microsoft and WordStar International (or 
their successors).  They can give a copy of the license agreements which 
you can then take to your lawyers for interpretation.

	After all, this stuff depends on your license agreements and/or 
your willingness to challenge them in a court of law.

	A lot of the early license agreements were very draconian.
	For example, selling your software to someone else could be piracy, 
that is, the license was granted to you, personally. 
	You could also be a pirate if you use your software on a different 
computer than the one you purchased it for.  You couldn't upgrade to a 
new PC or even use the software on a replacement PC if the original one 
broke down irreparably.  (Of course, just what constitutes a computer?  
Does, say, enhancing your Apple IIe into an Apple //e mean you have a 
new computer?)
	Making backup copies of your software for emergency and/or archival 
purposes could be piracy by your license agreement.
	Removing the copy protection to make it easier to backup your 
software could be considered piracy.

	What do you do if you bought the software second hand and the 
software didn't come with a license agreement?
	For example, games are many times sold as disks, with any 
documentation.  What do you do if the manufacturer is out of business 
and you have no way of reasonably discovering who copyright owner now 
is, if anyone?
	On the other hand, what if you treated your software like a book, 
(as popularized by Borland).  You can share a book with a friend by 
passing it back and forth.  Is it acceptable to do this with software 
when you don't have license agreement?

	(A variant approach to the 'treat-software-like-a-book) is the 
'time-sharing' method, where you and a friend agree to only use the 
software during your part of a day (two people = twelve hours a day, six 
people = four hours a day, etc.).
	The rationale for this one is to treat the software like a book 
that you are passing around among a small group of friends.
	Other people consider it as if you are passing around photocopies 
of the book to your friends, which is a legal gray area.)

	If you rented the software to your friend, you may or may not be 
legal, depending on which state you live in.
	That brings up another point.  Where you live makes a difference 
regarding copyrights.
	For example, the United Kingdom doesn't allow 'fair use' while the 
United States does.

	As you can see, the situation isn't always clear cut (as much some 
people want pretend it is).

	So, basically it comes down to you, and your willing to live 
with what you do.  What is your view of the situation?

-- 

Fortran Dragon -==(UDIC)==- | "There isn't enough darkness in the world
-=={MDLAM}==-               |  to quench the light of one small candle."
Hidalgo Trading Company:  http://www.ponyexpress.net/~xyzzy/index.html