Re: Mecc titles

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:

>Penman writes ...
>> 
>> Most MECC titles for the Apple II are still being sold, and are
>> copyrighted material (I happen to have a MECC catalog at work)
>> 
>> That being the case, any that would be on an ftp site would be pirated and
>> illegal.
> ....
>
>     Not necessarily. For example, suppose the site manager had contacted MECC
>and been told "Off the record, we do not mind if you make the software
available
>and will not interfer."
>
>     In such a case, offering the titles might look like copyright
infringement
>to you or I or most other users; but, it would not be anything of the kind.

I'm just going to add one thing:

Prior to 1997, an MIT student got away with putting commercial
software on his school ftp server because he claimed he did not
make a profit off it and it was not stealing.

In 1997, President Clinton signed into law a measure that
plugged the loophole.  Now it is a federal crime to make available
copyrighted software whatever its commercial value and even
if the offender does not make a profit off doing so.  Also, it
is not merely a case of the copyright holder suing the infringer
anymore.  The Justice Department has the power to push a
federal case against the offender.

And that's just what happened.  For the first time, someone
has been convicted of just making available commercial
software on his site:

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9908/20/internet.theft/index.htm

Remember, what this law does is give the US government
the power to enforce the law regardless of what the
copyright holder says or what the infringer profits from
making software available.  It allows the government to
enforce the letter of the law regardless.  It also tightens
the definition of piracy.