🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <6408@bsu-cs.UUCP>, mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes:
> In this week's ComputerWorld, and interesting article made the front page.
> Because of a unintended consequence of the 11th Amendment of the Constitution,
> the Supreme Court has ruled that state agencies and universities are not bound
> to honor copyrights -- in other words, they can copy at will.  (This is not
> an April Fools' joke...)

Just as a little clarification, here is a copy of a message that I sent
out to Mr. Sewall about my posting.  I think this will shead a little more
light on what this actually involves.  (Yes, I even did a little research
on this one :-) )


I don't know why this loophole exists -- ComputerWorld doesn't seem too
"legally inclined", but what do you expect from a computer magazine.

I agree that everyone at state universities should not run out and start
copying software.  As far as that goes, universities should show their
students a model of good ethics. If THIS university started making copies
of all of its software, I would think even less of it than I do now (since
they tend to make copies anyway, just not in abundance).

The eleventh amendment states as follows:

The Judicial power of the Unites States shall not be construed to extend
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the
United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of
any Foreign State.

This to me means that piracy is still illegal; you just can't enforce this
law in a US court.  The way to get around this loophole: pass a law that
gives enforcement rights to someone other than the US courts, like the
Department of Commerce maybe (or maybe that doesn't fit into their realm --
I'm no expert on that either.

Technically, I believe that a law that is not enforceable in a particular case
is void in that particular case, meaning that it is no longer illegal.  But
no law anywhere has ever defined what ethical and moral behaviour is, so I
wouldn't count on these redeeming qualities to hold people back...

-Michael Niehaus
-- 
Michael Niehaus        UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas
Apple Student Rep      ARPA:  mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu
Ball State University  AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)