karn@epic.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) (03/20/91)
Archive-name: internet/policy/karn-ka9q-hamradio/1991-03-15 Original-posting-by: karn@epic.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn) Original-subject: Re: SHAREware software - commercial use? Reposted-by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN) All you guys who are having a good time explaining why almost everything you'd ever want to do over amateur packet radio is illegal might consider the implications of what you're saying. I distribute my TCP/IP package in PKZIP format. Does that mean I'd have to refuse to FTP a copy of PKUNZIP over the air to somebody who needed it to install my software? Besides giving it away to hams, I license my software commercially. In most cases, I don't have to send the licensee a copy because they've already obtained it by other means. Does that mean that I have to require everyone who obtains my software to keep careful track of the path over which it was transferred to make sure that copies passed over amateur radio never find their way into a commercial user's hands? And the biggie: was it illegal for me to use amateur radio to develop a package that turned out to have commercial appeal? How about AMSAT - they have commercially licensed the technology that they developed for the Microsat satellites. Does that mean they must now turn off the Microsats? And so on. The way things are going, pretty soon everything other than network overhead will violate some armchair lawyer's interpretation of the rules. Phil