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Re: US court says software is owned, not licensed


From: Hyman Rosen
Subject: Re: US court says software is owned, not licensed
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:24:43 -0400
User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Windows/20090812)

Alexander Terekhov wrote:
Well, at least her own pseudo-paralegal conclusions are quite a
contribution on the recreational front! ;-)

I don't know why she seems to have gone off the deep end
over this; she seems to have forgotten that first sale
does not affect the rights of the copyright holder.

Your usual contention that copies of GPLed works you obtain
by downloading can then be sold without complying with the
GPL continues to be wrong, of course. 17 USC 106 separates
two rights of the copyright holder:
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/usc_sec_17_00000106----000-.html>
    (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or
        phonorecords;
    ...
    (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted
        work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership,
        or by rental, lease, or lending;
The GPL grants you different permissions for these two
rights of the copyright holder. Creating the copies allowed
by the first does not give you permission to distribute them.


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