Petr Novotny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On 15 Sep 99, at 8:53, Fred Lindberg wrote:
>> www.pobox.com/~djb/softwarelaw.html:
>> "Once you've legally downloaded a program, you can compile it. You can
>> run it. You can modify it. You can distribute your patches for other
>> people to use. If you think you need a license from the copyright
>> holder, you've been bamboozled by Microsoft. As long as you're not
>> distributing the software, you have nothing to worry about."
> That may be the way the copyright law works in US - I don't know what
> makes the legality of downloading a program - but that's probably not
> how the law works in other countries. "Do you have a licence? If not,
> stop using the program." Been there, heard that.
If that's how it works in the United States, that's probably also how it
works in other countries. If that's not how it works in other countries,
that's probably not how it works in the United States. Except for a few
weird exceptions, mostly not related to software, copyright law is fairly
effectively international under the Berne Convention.
I will say that the above paragraph from Dan's web site contradicts my
reading of the actual copyright statute, which specifically grants
exceptions for making an archival or backup copy and copying which is
necessary for the operation of the software (ie, the copy made in memory
when the computer executes the program) and no other copying. By my
reading of the current US copyright law, downloading, compiling, and
running the software Dan puts on his web site is fine but modifying it is
not, and distributing patches would only be okay if it were ruled that the
patch wasn't a derivative work (which I find unlikely).
It is, of course, always possible that the law has some legal meaning
which isn't clear to a lay person, and I'm not a lawyer (and this isn't
legal advice, etc.). US residents might want to go to the copyright
office pages at <URL:http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/> and download the PDF
files of USC title 17 (under Legislation) and read them. Chapter one is
the part of primary interest, IIRC.
--
Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <URL:http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
