Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!umd5!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!rafael
From: rafael@proxftl.UUCP (Rafael Mayer)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Piracy
Summary: Not quite illegal...
Keywords: copy protection piracy
Message-ID: <341@proxftl.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 88 18:16:38 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <5585@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Proximity Technology, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 42

In article <5585@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr) writes:
> There's also a difference in kinds of piracy.  If I copy 1-2-3 and put
> it on 10 machines in an office, but only _one_ of them is actually
> running the program at any one time, is that illegal?

This really depends on what the 1-2-3 licensing agreement says. Some licensing
agreements allow for only one back-up copy of the original software, others
allow for more.

Now that networks are becoming more common licensing agreements are becoming
much more explicit. For instance here is a quote from the Microsoft 5.0 C
compiler license agreement:

	"1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Microsoft grants you the right to use this copy
of a Microsoft language compiler program (the "COMPILER") and to distribute
your programs created using the COMPILER. You may not network the compiler or
otherwise use it on more than one computer (i.e., a single CPU) at the same
time. The COMPILER is owned by Microsoft and is protected by United States
copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Therefore you must treat
the COMPILER just like any other copyrighted material (e.g. a book or
musical recording) except that (a) you may make one copy of the COMPILER
solely for backup purposes, ..."

One thing is clear, the agreement explicitly prevents you from executing the
compiler on more than one cpu at a time, and you may only make one back-up
copy of the compiler. So at most you could install the compiler on two
machines. If you were careful about never using it at the same time on both
machines, (i.e. you made a rule that the compiler can only be used on the
machine that has all the manuals sitting next to it) you would not break
the licensing agreement. (At least, I don't think so. I am no expert on
these matters.)

Disclaimer: My opinions are not those of my employer.

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