🚀 go-pugleaf

> From: StarLord <JDS-...@prodigy.net>
> Alex Bobbs wrote:
> > DON'T EVEN PRETEND TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION!!!!
> > The "licenses" that make piracy a crime are the most unconstitutional thing 
since
> > affirmative action. Let's take a look at id softwares license, and what's
> > unconstitutional:
>  
> There's nothing "constitutional" or "unconstitutional" about the id
> software license; it's a contract pure and simple.  It isn't hidden
> inside anything; it's printed clearly below the seal you have to break
> to access the software.  If you read this contract and don't like it,
> any dealer will take it back with the seal unbroken.
>  
> Read this contract; you do NOT own the software and it is NOT your
> property.  You have been licensed to USE the software in the manner
> outlined in the contract.

Well...
It is actually something in between: there is no illegality per say (and never mind 
unconstitutionality) in the so-called "software licenses". In that I mean that you 
cannot take the publisher (or whoever is responsible for such obnoxious piece of 
legalese) to court (and win) for just exposing you to it.
On the other hand, the so-called "software license" does not, despite the software 
publisher's assurances to the contrary, constitute a binding contract. What this 
means is that someone writing some contract terms on an envelope and understating 
that your opening of said envelope constitutes your agreement to the terms does not 
have any legal value, whether or not it is possible for you to bring the package 
back unopened for a full refund. The current laws that relate to the exchange of 
goods "over the counter" simply do not allow unsigned "contracts" of that sort to 
have any standing.

Now, potential pirates out there should not believe that just because the "software 
licenses" included in off-the-shelf software packages are, indeed, nothing more 
that a toothless attempt at intimidation, they can copy and distribute to their 
hearts' contents. The copyright law still applies. If you buy a software package in 
a store, you do not "own" the intellectual rights to the package like you would 
own, say, an appliance. You just own the materials and have limited rights as to 
what you can do with the software they contain. Just the same as with a book, you 
just cannot go around and distribute copies for others to use (and note that books 
do not contain any license "agreement", because book publishers outgrew such 
lawyer-induced childishness even before copy machines ever existed).
By the way, there is a "fair use" clause in copyright law that allows one to 
lawfully make partial copies of copyrighted work, but it is well defined in scope 
(with its primary goal being to provide exceptions for educational purposes) and in 
no way allows duplication and redistribution, for monies or for free.

I have also witnessed here some argumentation related to the prices (some allegedly 
overinflated) of this or that software package. Well, people, live with it: the law 
never said that because a seller put too high a price on something and the 
potential buyer wanted it badly, the latter could go ahead and grab the 
merchandise! That, my friends, is called theft, period.
One can try to worm his way around it by redefining moral values to suit his 
coveting of another's property, but it is all to no avail. It is theft and it will 
remain so (just try to imagine a world where anyone has the right to do anything he 
or she deems "moral"... If we except a few loonies, everyone quickly understand 
that such anarchy just does not work).

- Pierre -