[License-discuss] [License-review] CC0 incompliant with OSD on patents, [was: MXM compared to CC0 ]

[Alexander Terekhov]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 10:53 PM, John Cowan <cowan at mercury.ccil.org> wrote:
[...]
> Someone in the other thread raised the points of first sale and patent
> exhaustion, but by the same token I doubt if pulling source code off
> a website counts as a sale: there is neither an express nor an implied
> contract here, I'd say.

"First sale" in the copyright context is just a shorthand for the
judicially-created doctrine that is now codified in 17 USC 109.  It
does not require a "sale" but applies to anyone who is "the owner of
a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title".

You can become the lawful owner of a copy by gift or similar things
that are not a sale.

And if You are the lawful owner, You can dispose of your copy in any
way You want, except for rental in the case of phonorecords or most
computer programs, as far as 17 USC is concerned.

regards,
alexander.