[License-discuss] Reverse Engineering and Open Source Licenses

[David Woolley]

On 10/03/15 23:53, John Cowan wrote:
>> 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.
>

You can buy a book (i.e. hardware consisting of paper and ink), but you 
can't buy the novel that it contains (the author will not assign 
copyright to you).

Incidenally, UK publishers do, or at least did, put constraints on the 
resale of books (not to be sold or lent in any cover other than the 
original).