maymudes@husc4.UUCP (David Maymudes,,,4982298) (05/26/89)
From article <31668@apple.Apple.COM>, by jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson): > It has to do with the fact that Compuserve, Genie, and AppleLink all > keep records of who have downloaded software from them and guarantee that > folks see a license agreement from Apple before they download. The US > Copyright office says that if you are to maintain your copyright you have > to maintain control over who receives your software. Does this concept only apply to computer software? For instance, it seems that if a book is sold at a bookstore, then the publisher, or even the bookstore, has no way to know whom the individual copies were sold to. Is the point that with computer software, since there is no obvious physical limit to the number of copies distributed, you can't tell the difference between giving away a limited number of copies of something, and letting everybody copy it for free? An idea: Shouldn't it be possible for the FTP host to keep a record of who has used it (using people's "Password:" response, even though it's not especially reliable) and what files have been downloaded (can be picked out from the list of commands sent. Would maintaining this information be enough? David Maymudes maymudes@husc4.harvard.edu --David Maymudes maymudes%husc4@harvard.ARPA maymudes@husc4.harvard.edu maymudes@husc4.UUCP maymudes@HARVUNXU.BITNET ..{seismo, harpo, ihnp4, linus, allegra, ut-sally}!harvard!husc4!maymudes davidm@harvarda.BITNET
jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson) (05/26/89)
Dear David - As I understand it, there are a lot of confusing issues around all of this. First and foremost, if I sell a book I know that you only have a single copy of it. It is easy for me to control who has a copy of it. Second, I understand that the US Copyright office has various classes of things that it copyrights with various requirements for protecting their copyrights. I will try, as I said earlier, to get more details about this. Jordan Mattson UUCP: jordan@apple.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. CSNET: jordan@apple.CSNET Development Tools Product Management AppleLink: Mattson1 20525 Mariani Avenue, MS 27S Cupertino, CA 95014 408-974-4601 "Joy is the serious business of heaven." C.S. Lewis
ollef@osiris.sics.se (Olle Furberg) (05/27/89)
In article <1944@husc6.harvard.edu> maymudes@husc4.harvard.edu writes: >From article <31668@apple.Apple.COM>, by jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson): >> It has to do with the fact that Compuserve, Genie, and AppleLink all >> keep records of who have downloaded software from them and guarantee that >> folks see a license agreement from Apple before they download. The US >> Copyright office says that if you are to maintain your copyright you have >> to maintain control over who receives your software. > > >An idea: Shouldn't it be possible for the FTP host to keep a record of who has >used it (using people's "Password:" response, even though it's not especially >reliable) and what files have been downloaded (can be picked out from the list >of commands sent. Would maintaining this information be enough? If the big problem is to assure that folks must read the agreement before they get the program then there is an easier way to do this: put a password on the stuffit-archive containing the copyrighted software and then put the password in the middle of the license agreement text document (which is not protected). In this way people have to read the agreement to extract the program. But I guess Apple then will have insurmountable problems with the license for Stuffit... /Olle