mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch) (05/14/87)
In article <3043@well.UUCP> mjr@well.UUCP (Matthew Rapaport) writes: > They [CompuServe] do not object to personal use or even casual > re-distribution, but they do try to put their foot down when individuals > attempt massive electronic redistribution -- set up their own BBS > and just re-broadcast things obtained from CIS. As far as I'm > concerned, this policy is justified since CIS invests much time > and effort into making reliable storage and distribution facilities > available. > > Usenet may not have an official policy on such matters, but I get the > impression that here too, if an individual were to download large > amounts of code from the net and then RESELL it (as distinct from > giving it away), some people here would be rightlypissed! Depends what you mean by "rightly". If a program is in the public domain, it is resellable, subject only to the possible copyright held by someone who makes the compilation of such software available. However, compilation copyrights are relatively weak; they do not cover the substance of the compiled work but instead the uniqueness of the compilation (e.g., someone has gone to the trouble of collecting all known PD software written in SIMSCRIPT) or the format of the compilation (e.g., it has been compressed and put on a Cauzin SoftStrip). But more importantly, public domain Usenet source distributions are not covered by a compilation copyright, and probably could not be, (since they are not really compiled) with the exception of the comp.sources.unix (formerly mod.sources) distributions and archives. And the moderator of comp.sources.unix has chosen not to do so; thus the distributions and archives can be freely resold for whatever the market will bear; they just cannot be claimed as proprietary. Whether it is "right" or "wrong" is a moral question. It is certainly lawful. In the case of CompuServe, the question is a legal one, since they assert a compilation copyright as to the PD software available throught their service. What exactly might constitute an infringement of that compilation copyright is beyond the scope of this discussion. Michael C. Berch / mcb@lll-tis-b.arpa UUCP: {ames,ihnp4,lll-crg,lll-lcc,mordor}!lll-tis!mcb (15 May and thereafter)
tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith) (05/17/87)
When dealing with a commercial service, such as Compuserve or GEnie, there are things beside copyright law that determine what one can and can not do. In particular, you have to sign an agreement to abide by their rules in order to gain access to their service. This agreement can put restrictions on what you can and can not distribute. -- Tim Smith "O Freunde, nicht diese Toene! sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, Und freudenvololoand