🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.os.linux.misc Bill Unruh <unruh@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
:>No you cannot simply copy someone elses work. You had no part in its
:>development. You did not spend a great deal of your time and effort
:>creating it so why should you be able to do so.

: So what? I had no hand in originally designing a hammer either, or in
: building my house. Yet I can make myself a hammer,or alter my house to
: my hearts content. Are you really advocating that the plumber who put in
: my pipes should be able to control what I do with them for the next 70
: years because he put all that time and effort into installing them?

In the case of software in the US at least, the "plumber" seems to have no
such right in fact.  cf ftp://koobera.math.uic.edu/www/softwarelaw.html .


:>>Which is even worse. What gives society the right to restrict my ability
:>>to do with my possesions (eg the cdrom of Word for Windows say) what I
:>>want, which includes making copies of it? 

:>You already have such a right. What you do not have the right to do is
:>to distribute such copies.
: No I do not. For example, the license for Partition Magic (which I
: select only because I have had dealings with it) says I may only use
: the program on one single computer ever. That is not the right to do
: "whatever I want " with it. 

What's missing in a lot of these threads is that the licence is not the be
all and end all of the legal matter.  Many common licence clauses are
completely illegal (i.e. unenforceable or even explicitly disallowed in law)
and thus invalid.  The above is one such clause as far as I know.  So yes,
you do have such a right.

What I'd like to see happen is that if a compmany *knowingly* includes a
legally invalid clause in their licence or copyright with the intent of
"duping" its paying customers, that the entire document be automatically
rendered invalid.  this would not be in order to get free (beer) software,
but in order to severely discourage the attempted use of the illegal
(usually shrink-wrap) licences.


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