🚀 go-pugleaf

In the comp.sources.games posting, Volume 11, Issue 52, Rich Burridge
posts an othello game called Reve. In all of the files is the line:

>    You are forbidden from using Reve as is, or in a modified state, in
>    any tournaments, without the permission of the authors.

As has been discussed to death and looked at by copyright lawyers,
such a restriction is invalid and carries zero legal weight.

Copyright law only covers redistribution or public exhibition. It
cannot limit otherwise what you do with a legally obtained copy of
something. Only a license agreed on by both parties before you
receive the goods can enforce such a limitation.

Being a programmer myself, I usually respect the wishes of other
programmers. If Rich had said "Please don't use this in tournaments,"
I'd be a lot more sympathetic. I'd probably burn in Hell before I'd
use it in a tournament. But he didn't say that. He said "You are
forbidden" when he has absolutely no right whatsoever to forbid
anyone.

Our freedoms are threatened enough without software authors and
publishers trying to limit them more with "shrink wrap licenses",
shareware "restrictions", and "look and feel" copyright suits. I
consider a "forbidden usage" clause to be just such a threat.

It's not so important what is forbidden as the idea that some
arbitrary behavior can be forbidden without a prior agreement. This is
a dangerous idea, one that can lead down a very dark road.

Sean


-- 
***  Sean Casey <sean@s.ms.uky.edu>
***  "I feel better than James Brown!"