From: David Kastrup <dak-mxxj517/zsq@public.gmane.org>
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:29:49 GMT
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] GIT 1.5.4
Message-ID: <86tzkksuua.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz>
In-Reply-To: <8763x07thd.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org>


Michael Poole <mdpoole-IZmAEv5cUt1AfugRpC6u6w@public.gmane.org> writes:

> British courts, for instance, have held that copying a program into
> RAM for the purposes of executing it is a right reserved under
> copyright law.  In the US, 17 USC 117(c) and (d) were added after a
> court held (in MAI Sys. Corp. v. Peak Computer) that a computer repair
> company violated copyright of software that automatically started on a
> computer it was asked to repair -- by simply allowing the computer to
> boot and execute that program automatically.
>
> As the GPL itself notes, you are not required to accept it, but
> nothing else grants you the right to perform actions reserved to
> copyright holders with respect to the work.

I think that most countries will grant some right to the purchaser of a
physical copy of copyrighted material.  For example, I doubt there are
countries where it is prohibited to read a book you have bought (via a
channel authorized by the copyright holder) when it contains no explicit
license granting you the right to read it.

-- 
David Kastrup