Shrink-wrap licensing

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

Here's another one: if you walk into a computer store and steal a copy of
Microsoft Windows 2000 (...because it costs too much;-)) (with the
shrinkwrap license in place), are you bound by the license if you break open
the shrink wrap? Does the license bind a thief as well as a buyer?

Rod


___________________________________
Rod Dixon
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law
Rutgers University School of Law - Camden
www.cyberspaces.org
rod at cyberspaces.org

Chief Counsel
FreeBuyers Net, LLC
www.freebuyersnet.com
dixon at freebuyersnet.com



> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Cowan [mailto:cowan at locke.ccil.org]
> Sent: Friday, July 10, 2893 6:44 PM
> To: license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: Shrink-wrap licensing
>
>
> I read the SelectPhone case with great interest, especially
> the following bit of dictum:
>
> # Someone who found a copy of SelectPhone (trademark) on the street
> # would not be affected by the shrinkwrap license--though the federal
> # copyright laws of their own force would limit the finder's ability
> # to copy or transmit the application program.
>
> This suggests that when there is no relation of buying and selling
> between the copyright holder and the end user, no shrink-wrap-style
> license can alter the position between them.  As a result, the
> open-source community would have to fall back on the
> conditional-copyright-
> grant theory.
>
> --
> John Cowan                                   cowan at ccil.org
>        I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin
>