Subj : Re: about to blow a gaske
To   : Angus Mcleod
From : Deuce
Date : Sun May 29 2005 12:37 pm

  Re: Re: about to blow a gaske
  By: Angus Mcleod to Deuce on Sat May 28 2005 21:18:00

 >  > Think of it this way... you buy a computer with Windoes pre-loaded on it.
 >  > It turns out that that copy of Windows is not a legal copy.
 >  >
 >  > The company who installed Windows is at fault, not you.
 > 
 > But you are still using an illegal copy of the product and subject to
 > whatever legal action the copyright holder sees fit to bring to bear.

Not around here.  In Canada it is NOT illegal to posess so-called "illegal
software" it is illegal to DISTRIBUTE it.  copyright protects the right to
copy.  If I never copy it, I'm not breaking copyright law... it's that simple. 
The copyright holder cannot bring any legal action related to copyright against
me as I did not in any way break any copyright laws... and IMHO, it's be
idiotic to alow that.  I mean, as an example, a local Mom & Pop shop managed to
distribute illegal copies of Office on their white box systems.  They purchased
them from an authourized Microsft reseller, and pre-installed in the correct
OEM manner.  When Microsoft found out (Because, of course, the customers
couldn't register their copies) Microsoft went after the reseller.  The Mpm &
Pop shop never got dinged (They didn't do anything wrong) and the customers
didn't get dinged either (They also did nothing wrong) neither the shop nor the
end-user had any reason to believe that they were doing something illegal...
how can you punish them for that then?  In this case, Microsoft even gave all
the customers free copies of Office (I'm pretty sure that wasn't required, it
was just Microsoft being nice again)

OTOH, a number of years ago, there was a different white box builder that would
just clone a copy of tonnes of software between all the systems they sold. 
They were in blatant violation of copyright.  Microsoft came down HARD on them.

If someone removes or modifies a copyright notice and redstributes the result,
that person is liabel for ALL such modified copies no matter where they end up
or how they got there.  The people who did the copying again had no way of
knowing they were breaking the law (which is quite a bit different than not
being aware of the law - an invalid excuse)

---
 þ Synchronet þ ``Penguins make tasty snacks''

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