Wired Article on the GPL

[Chloe Hoffman]

>From the U.S. Copyright Act:

"§ 117. Limitations on exclusive rights: Computer programs

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for 
the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of 
another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:

(1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in 
the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and 
that it is used in no other manner, or
(2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that 
all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of 
the computer program should cease to be rightful.

Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section 
may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from 
which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other 
transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be 
transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner."

Your mileage may vary in other countries.....

>From: Justin Wells <jread at semiotek.com>
>To: "license-discuss at opensource.org" <license-discuss at opensource.org>
>Subject: Re: Wired Article on the GPL
>Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:52:55 -0400
>
>On Mon, Apr 03, 2000 at 02:57:34PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
>
> > Running the program is not part of the copyright rights-bundle: when you
> > acquire the program sans EULA-style license, you are an owner of that 
>copy,
> > and you can run it because that is analogous to reading a book that you 
>own.
>
>Usually, though, in order to run it you have to copy it into memory, and
>without a specific grant, you don't have the right to make that copy. I
>thought there was a court decision in the US which determined that copying
>into RAM was "fixation" in copyright law.
>
>It's not clear to me that you are entitled to copy a program into
>RAM just because you are the owner and have ordinary copy rights. It
>might be that there is some implicit right to copy a program into
>RAM for the purpose of executing it, if you own the program.
>
>Justin
>

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