mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (03/31/89)
In this week's ComputerWorld, and interesting article made the front page.
Because of a unintended consequence of the 11th Amendment of the Constitution,
the Supreme Court has ruled that state agencies and universities are not bound
to honor copyrights -- in other words, they can copy at will. (This is not
an April Fools' joke...)
This decision resulted because of a case by an engineering software
company against UCLA, who was accused of copying 3 copies of the software
and 10 copies of the manuals for each copy that they purchased.
Needless to say, the software industry is very concerned about this development.
They are currently lobbying the Congress to pass a law closing this loophole.
Discussing is slated to begin on May 17. Currently passage of the proposed bill
is expected.
Now does this mean that any copying done before then is exempt, since after-the-
fact legislation is frowned upon? If this is the case, there will be much
copying until May 17...
-Michael
--
Michael Niehaus UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas
Apple Student Rep ARPA: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu
Ball State University AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (03/31/89)
In article <6408@bsu-cs.UUCP>, mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes: > In this week's ComputerWorld, and interesting article made the front page. > Because of a unintended consequence of the 11th Amendment of the Constitution, > the Supreme Court has ruled that state agencies and universities are not bound > to honor copyrights -- in other words, they can copy at will. (This is not > an April Fools' joke...) Just as a little clarification, here is a copy of a message that I sent out to Mr. Sewall about my posting. I think this will shead a little more light on what this actually involves. (Yes, I even did a little research on this one :-) ) I don't know why this loophole exists -- ComputerWorld doesn't seem too "legally inclined", but what do you expect from a computer magazine. I agree that everyone at state universities should not run out and start copying software. As far as that goes, universities should show their students a model of good ethics. If THIS university started making copies of all of its software, I would think even less of it than I do now (since they tend to make copies anyway, just not in abundance). The eleventh amendment states as follows: The Judicial power of the Unites States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. This to me means that piracy is still illegal; you just can't enforce this law in a US court. The way to get around this loophole: pass a law that gives enforcement rights to someone other than the US courts, like the Department of Commerce maybe (or maybe that doesn't fit into their realm -- I'm no expert on that either. Technically, I believe that a law that is not enforceable in a particular case is void in that particular case, meaning that it is no longer illegal. But no law anywhere has ever defined what ethical and moral behaviour is, so I wouldn't count on these redeeming qualities to hold people back... -Michael Niehaus -- Michael Niehaus UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas Apple Student Rep ARPA: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu Ball State University AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)