[License-discuss] Reverse Engineering and Open Source Licenses

[John Cowan]

David Woolley scripsit:

> You didn't buy the software.  You bought a piece of hardware with a
> single copy.

By that definition, I don't buy books either, but that turns out not to
be the case.

> Red Hat don't even have the right to sell most of Linux as people like
> the FSF own it.

The FSF actually encourages people to sell copies of their software:
see <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html>.  In the past they
themselves have sold copies on magtape and later on CD at a high price:
see <http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull24.html#SEC26>.

> A lot of what you were probably trying to say is US specific, as it
> relates to the first sale doctrine.

The first-sale doctrine also applies in the EU under the name of
"exhaustion", as well as in Canada and Australia.  In the EU, the
product must have been first sold within the EU in order for exhaustion
to kick in.

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
It's like if you meet an really old, really rich guy covered in liver
spots and breathing with an oxygen tank, and you say, "I want to be
rich, too, so I'm going to start walking with a cane and I'm going to
act crotchety and I'm going to get liver disease. --Wil Shipley