🚀 go-pugleaf

|>  [ From: uunet!urban!jlr (John Lynn Roseman) ] 
|>The following quote is from an official with the Soviet 
|>patent agency:
|>
|>   There is no copyright protection for computer software 
|>   in the USSR.  Now the rules of protecting software in our
|>   country are under discussion and preparation.  The protection 
|>   is available now by confidentiality of the contract.
|>        I. Zhuravljova, v/o Sojuspatent  6/15/90
|>
|>This seems to imply that all packaged software is in the public 
|>domain in the USSR.  So a company could theoretically be set up 
|>there with a disk duplicator and shrink wrapped copy of UNIX sVr4, 
|>and sell unlicensed copies at a very low price.
|>
|>One issue is whether this would violate any American laws.
|>For a company with no ties to AT&T, it seems not to.

>   [ From: thor@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Rich Neitzel) in gnu.misc.discuss ]
> I do not see anything in the quoted statement that implies that software
> of any form is considered public domain. Read the last sentence
> carefully - allowing for the slightly garbled English, it says that the
> only current protection of software is the contract between the supplier
> and purchaser. Where do you exspect to buy a copy of UNIX sVr4 (or any
> other commerical product) that does not have a provision in the purchase
> agreement that prohibits you from making copies exspect for backup
> purposes? If you purchase it in the USSR, making and distributing copies
> is a violation of Soviet law. If you purchase it outside the USSR, you
> are still bound by the laws of the country of purchase, albeit it will
> be much harder to enforce judgement. 

The "Open This Package and Agree to These Terms" notice on packaged 
software is not a contract because there is no explicit assent on the 
part of the purchaser.  To make a legal (i.e. enforceable) contract, 
both parties must typically sign the contract document.  The notice does 
provide the software vendor with enforceable rights under copyright laws 
by demonstrating a good faith effort to inform buyers of the copyright.

The "confidentiality of the contract" language used by the Soviet 
official would apply to a contract to develop custom software for 
a Soviet client, where a non-disclosure clause could be enforced.

In the USSR today, packaged software is copied freely.  Virtualy 
all computers are owned by the government, so the official 
position seems to be that packaged software is in the public 
domain.  Setting up a company to distribute UNIX would give 
people and organizations outside of the government access to 
software that the bureaucracy already has, as well as
increasing availability to the bureaucracy itself.