Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 09:57:11 -0400 From: Dan Flemming <danflemming@mac.com> To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Copyrights (again) Message-ID: <39819137.A9377EE@mac.com> References: <bulk.37169.20000727164137@hub.freebsd.org> <14720.59694.464218.849612@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer wrote: > > > > Legal protection for software is copyright law. > > Well, sort of. If I break into a computer store and steal all their > > Windows CDs, I am not guilty of copyright infringement, just theft of > > the physical objects. 'Course, if I then install Windows on some > > computers, using those CDs, without a valid license, then I'm also > > guilty of copyright infringement. > > The first part I'll agree with. Are you sure about the second case? > After all, those CDs come with the appropriate license for one > install. If you don't violate that license, it's not clear you've > violated the copyright. Or does the license specify that you have to > have obtained the CD legally? I think there's a standard clause that says that you have to obtain the CD from an authorized distributor, and legally obtained would be implied. Nevertheless, your point is valid; it would depend on the terms of the license contract. > > Actually, lots of stuff is PD. Everything Shakespeare wrote, for example. > > True - I wasn't very clear. I meant that things don't get placed in > the public domain very often any more. They never did. They go into public domain, though. Currently, under US law, 70 years after the death of the author, all of that author's works leave copyright. Interestingly, in the US, government publications do not attract copyright. Anybody can copy them. This is not true in many other countries; here in Canada, we have crown copyright. > > You can sell PD materials, but you can't copyright them. They have no > > copyright to be had. > > That's wrong. The copyright belongs to the public. Anyone and everyone > has a right to make copies of something in the PD, with no > restrictions whatsoever. I'm perfectly free to take a copy of a PD > work, slap my copyright line on it, and then sell it to someone with a > standard license. Of course, I can't stop them from finding the > original and doing whatever they want with that. Not... exactly. If you change something that's in the public domain, then you can copyright the change. You have to make the change, though. Ever wonder why old 19th century books published in cheap editions have little prefaces? The publisher can copyright the preface and prevent others from mass-producing the book. However, others can use the same sources the cheap publisher used quite legally. (We're getting a matter of definitions, here. Legally, a copyright is the right to prevent others from making copies. It can't belong to the public.) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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