RealNetworks' RTSP Proxy License

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sun, Sep 09, 2001 at 02:00:50PM +0100, SamBC (sambc at nights.force9.co.uk) wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Humphreys, Noel [mailto:nhumphreys at AkinGump.com]
> >
> <SNIP>
> >
> > Copyright law empowers an author to restrict others from copying the
> > work.  A user therefore wants the license to allow the user to copy
> > the work.  In software terms, copying occurs when the user's hard
> > drive or RAM receives or records the software, for example.
> 
> Copyright law *does* specify that such copying essential to use is not
> considered copying, and is not a reserved right. We've had this out on
> this list before.

A technicality, but this isn't quite accurate.

Copyright law generally distinguishes not between what is or isn't
copying, but between what is or isn't an *infringing* copy.  17 USC 117
doesn't say that copying a program in RAM isn't copying, but that it's
a non-infringing copy, if performed under certain circumstances (the
normal execution of a program, by or authorized by the lawful owner of a
copy of the program).

A more interesting instance is the so-called home recording provision,
section 1008.  In this case, the exemption doesn't state that the copy is
legal or othewise, but that it cannot be prosecuted:

    17 USC 1008  Prohibition on certain infrigement actions.
    http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1008.html

    No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of
    copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of
    a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium,
    an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based
    on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium
    for making digital musical recordings or analog musical
    recordings.

IANAL, TINLA.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>          http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?             There is no K5 cabal
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