lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (10/22/85)
Most (all?) Universities have students sign a form (somewhere in all the stuff) that says they (the student) will abide by all University rules and regulations and legal restrictions, etc. By some interpretations, this would be enough to make a student vulnerable to suit. This would seem particularly likely if the student had any reason to believe that they might be violating a license (for example, they had heard how the software was licensed). In the sort of case we're talking about, it would be almost impossible for a student not to hear (from teachers, books, manuals, network digests, etc.) about how the software is licensed. But, even in the presence of absolute, provable ignorance, the student would almost certainly not get off the hook completely. My guess is that the school would be sued and the student would be served with an injunction to block further dissemination or use of the material. A similar case is large companies whose employees sometimes try copy software the company bought. Some employees have protested that they thought it was OK to do that, but in court it was found that they were not really ignorant of the licensed status of the software, even though they had not signed a specific agreement with the company they worked for regarding that software. In other words, the courts weren't fooled by the employees protests of ignorance. And even if true ignorance was shown, the employees would still have had to return the software, all copies, and to immediately stop any use of the materials. This is a complex area of law that is probably not really suitable for prolonged discussion in this technical list. Also, I am not a lawyer, though I try to keep up with the literature in the area. --Lauren--
jeff@ISI-VAXA.ARPA (Jeffery A. Cavallaro) (10/22/85)
Believe it or not, but most workers in industry (especially defense) are "forced" by their superiors to violate implied copywrite agreements. The average worker or student is often caught between a rock and a hard place. Of course, this says nothing about the individual who pirates for his own use, and the use of others. This is blatant stealing, and I have little respect for people who practice it. (anyway, this should probably be on another list...)