"I accept" button

[David Johnson]

On Friday 26 April 2002 07:07 am, Lee,Benjamin S - LGA wrote:

> But what does it mean when you say "for any legal purpose"?  For any
> purpose whatsoever?  For example, when you purchase a video cassette, do
> you get
> -- right to public display of the content? (uhm, no)
> -- right to public performance of the content? (no)
> -- right to broadcast the content? (no)
> ... and of course you don't get to modify it or copy it in any shape
> whatsoever...

I don't have the right to any of the above. But so what? I DO have the right 
to USE the software.

If I buy a book, I don't have to get the author's permission to read it. If I 
buy a painting I don't have to get the artist's permission to view it. How 
much plainer can this be?

If I buy a piece of software then I don't have to ask any damn person for 
permission to use it.

> The only clear right you have is to that darn physical cassette.  The
> content on it is pretty much locked up by Disney et al.

Title 17, section 106 <http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html>, lists 
the exclusive rights of the author. They include a whole bunch of things. 
Depending on the nature of the work, other sections grant them additional 
exclusive rights. But nowhere does it say that usage of the work is a right 
exclusive to the author.

I really don't give a fsck what Disney thinks. If I buy a video cassette of 
Bambi, then I have the legal, moral, and ethical right to view Bambi!

> So, clearly, when you say for "any legal purpose" under Copyright Law,
> you mean only those purposes that the law allows...

That is exactly what I meant. The law allows me to use the software which I 
legally possess a copy of. Any license that says I must first enter into a 
contractual obligation to the author before I can use the software is a 
meaningless license.

> I think you may be ingoring many years of serious (and boring) debate in
> the legal community as to the proper handling of software under the
> UCC...

No single human being can possibly understand all of the law that is 
currently in effect in the United States. Not George Bush. Not Al Gore. And 
certainly not me.

Therefore I have to resort to common sense, logic, and rationality, what 
little of which I happen to possess. Common sense tells me that if a piece of 
software is wholesaled by the manufacturer to a retail outlet, and I aquire 
that software at a retail outlet by exchanging some of my money for it, and I 
receive a receipt, then that software is a commercial product, and the US 
Commercial Code should apply.

Perhaps the UCC doesn't apply. If it doesn't, it should. Otherwise someone 
should start suing these manufacturers for fraud.

-- 
David Johnson
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