Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!cod!rupp
From: rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Blindness / pirating
Message-ID: <1268@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 20 Oct 88 20:39:34 GMT
References: <186@orbit.UUCP>
Reply-To: rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp)
Organization: Computer Sciences Corp., San Diego
Lines: 28

In article <186@orbit.UUCP> shawn@pnet51.cts.com (Shawn Stanley) writes:
  >...................  If you make a copy of copyrighted software, whether it's
  >made over the phone line, across a network, byte by byte entry from the
  >keyboard, or on-disk, you have made an illegal copy. .........
  >
  >UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!shawn
  >INET: shawn@pnet51.cts.com

Wrong!  At least it's wrong if one interprets your words literally.
It is not illegal to "make *a* copy of copyrighted software."  Empahsis
on the word "a".  It is legal to make an archival copy to back up your
program disk.  You are legally liable only if you give or sell that copy
to someone else.

I am not 100% sure about the legality of selling your original
distribution disk.  I think even that is technically illegal because one does
not have the right to transfer the software license to another party.  Don't
forget, it's the license that is the heart of the copyright, not the
actual diskette itself.

Bill

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Who is no lawyer, and whose advice, besides being worth what you paid
for it, represents no one's opinions but his own.   However, if you want to use
those opinions as your own, we can negotiate an advantageous licensing
agreement.
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