restrictions on use

[Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.]

Absolutely. I have missed some of the debate over the last couple of days,
but there should be no question whether use may be restricted in a license.
It certainly can and usually is.

Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M.
www.cyberspaces.org
rod at cyberspaces.org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Justin Wells [mailto:jread at semiotek.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 12:15 PM
> To: license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: restrictions on use
>
>
>
> The more I read about copyright law, the more I become convinced that you
> CAN restrict use in a pure copyright license. Whether you would want to
> do this or not is controversial and may contravene the OSD anyway. But
> it might be OK in some cases.
>
> One way is that loading a computer program into memory in order to execute
> it is an act of copying in the US, and would constitute infringement of
> copyright if you didn't have permission to do this. Since you must load
> a computer program in order to execute it, you can use a copyright license
> to restrict the circumstances under which the program can be loaded.
>
> Outside of the US there is the concept of the "moral rights" of a
> copyright
> owner, and the moral rights should also allow you to prevent the use of
> your work in conjunction with something you don't like. For example, you
> may not want your work to be used in conjunction with non-free software
> in a variety of specific ways.
>
> Importantly to me, I think you can use these concepts to enforce a viral
> license on software even if it is runtime linked, even if it is run from
> an application server via CORBA or RMI or DCOM.
>
> Justin
>
>