Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!milton!blake.acs.washington.edu!jimsa
From: jimsa@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jim Sather)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Eckel's Using C++ source Code
Message-ID: <6828@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 17:47:47 GMT
References: <6718@milton.u.washington.edu> <423@taumet.com>
Sender: news@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 41

In article <423@taumet.com> steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) writes:
| jimsa@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jim Sather) writes:
| 
| >Is this available anywhere via anonymous ftp?  I'd like to save myself the
| >hastle of typing source in, yet I don't wish to pay $25 for the source code
| >disk.  If someone else has typed this stuff in, then can it be distributed
| >freely?  I would think so since after all I do have the book and I could
| >do it myself.  For that matter, couldn't the code off the actual disks be
| >distributed since there is no way to distinguishably tell if you had 
| >obtained it from the publishers disk copy or from someone who took the pains
| >to type it in?  Anyway if it's available somewhere, I sure would like to get
| >ahold of a copy.
| 
| Suppose I photocopy Eckel's book, have it printed on indentical paper,
| make an exact copy of the cover on identical cover stock, and give
| away these copies of the book.  It would be extremely difficult to tell
| whether a book was from the publisher or was one of the counterfeits.
| Is this legal?  Of course not.
| 
| Under the "fair use" doctrine, I may make copies of the book or parts of
| the book for my own use, but the whole point of the copyright law is that
| I may not distribute such copies without permission.
| 
| So posting or otherwise giving away or selling copies of the source code
| from the book except as authorized by the copyright holder is illegal.
| -- 
| 
| Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com

I don't think your analogy quite fits.  I would compare this more to hand
writing out a few select pages of a book and giving it to a friend/s.  I
think that would fall into the "fair use" catagory.  After all what you are
saying is that I can type it in straight out of the book yet I am not allowed
to have someone else do it for me, unless it's the publisher and I pay them
$25 dollars.  So I can't even have a friend, who has the book also type in
the source code for both of us?  This sounds rediculous.  I realize this is
starting to take up too much bandwidth so email all replys directly to
me.  Any lawyer types out there that have a definite answer on this?

-Jim
jimsa@blake.acs.washington.edu