Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!obsolete.UUCP!nazgul
From: nazgul@obsolete.UUCP (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Senate Bill S.198
Message-ID: <8905281439.AA01252@obsolete.UUCP>
Date: 28 May 89 14:39:30 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

> In article <8905261424.AA22018@obsolete.UUCP> nazgul@obsolete.UUCP (Kee Hinckley) writes:
> >But wait.  My *toaster* probably embodies a computer program!
> 
> So, if you distribute a copy of the program in your toaster, you're
> violating the Copyright on that program.  What's the problem?

No, the bill doesn't say that you can't *copy* the program.  It says
that you can't rent/lease/lend for profit *any* copy of the program,
including the original.

    ...the owner of a particular copy 
    of a computer program (including any tape, disk, or other medium 
    embodying such program), may, for the purposes of direct or indirect
    commercial advantage, dispose of, or authorize the disposal of, the 
    possession of that phonorecord or computer program (including any tape,
    disk, or other medium embodying such program) by rental, lease, or
    lending. 

Admittedly no one is likely to come after me for renting toasters,
but this does make it illegal, and I have trouble conceiving of a way
to phrase it that takes into account future media, yet doesn't make
it illegal to do things they didn't intend.  The problem is what
they really mean is "you can't lend/lease/rent anything it's easy
for someone to copy".  But the definition of "easy" changes over time.

						-kee

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